SATE continues its season of transformations with the world premiere of Shualee Cook’s Tempest in a Teapot, a fascinating play based on two much-loved classics.

As a young girl, Alice Liddell was Lewis Carroll’s inspiration for the title character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Cook’s play revisits Alice at age 21, when she is struggling to meet the expectations of Victorian England’s regimented society.

Alice (Chrissie Watkins) has just made the acquaintance of Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria’s youngest son. Her father (Adam Flores) implores Alice to consider the advantages of a royal connection. Alice just wants to enjoy her new friend’s company.

Carroll’s story still has a hold on Alice, as shown by the appearance of the Cheshire Cat (Kay Ailee Bush), who chides Alice from under her piano. Wonderland rises to the top of Alice’s mind when Carroll (John Wolbers) pays her a brief visit while waiting to see her father (who was the dean of Oxford’s Christ Church College and co-editor of the longtime standard reference work, A Greek-English Lexicon).

She tells Carroll she has been reading Shakespeare, starting alphabetically with All’s Well That Ends Well. He encourages her to read The Tempest. This suggestion sends Alice on another journey to Wonderland. This time, however, she does not go down a rabbit hole. She is shipwrecked by a storm, as the King of Naples and his party were in The Tempest.

Alice finds herself once again at the table of the Mad Hatter (Flores) along with the March Hare (Keating) and the Dormouse (Summer Baer), who agree to help Alice put on The Tempest. Carroll and the Cheshire Cat get in on the act, too. The Mad Hatter supplies the hats that help identify the Shakespeare characters played by the Wonderland characters.

Tempest in a Teapot has had a long development period. In 2015, it received a reading from R-S Theatrics in St. Louis. A year later, a staged reading was mounted at the Idle Muse Athena Festival in Chicago. Cook’s script has evolved into a fully formed work in which delightful comedy coexists with bold ideas.

Cook’s affection for her sources is obvious in the fun she has in adapting them. Even so, she recognizes and addresses their dated ideas, including the oppression of women in both works and the colonialist mindset behind Prospero’s enslaving the inhabitants of his island home in exile.

Cook’s Caliban is a shrewd, menacing revolutionary who persuades Alice that following Shakespeare’s script is not her only option—she can determine the outcome herself. She does not follow Caliban, either. The conclusion Alice engineers is more generous than Caliban’s would have been.

SATE’s excellent cast has the versatility required to play a variety of characters in the play’s three settings: Oxford, Wonderland, and The Tempest. The actors and their roles are:

• Chrissie Watkins as Alice, Miranda, and Ariel
• John Wolbers as Lewis Carroll and Prospero
• Summer Baer as the Dormouse, Alonso, the White Queen, and the Mouse
• Kay Ailee Bush as the Cheshire Cat, Caliban, the Red Queen, Lorina, and Edith
• Adam Flores as the Mad Hatter, Antonio, Gonzalo, Stephano, the Butterfly, the Dodo, and Alice’s father.
• Keating as the March Hare, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Trinculo, the Duck, and Prince Leopold

Watkins takes Alice on an affecting and convincing journey from frustration and doubt to self-realization. Bush’s sly insinuations bring striking power to Caliban’s subversiveness. Wolbers evinces both the importance and the limitations of Carroll and Prospero. Baer, Flores, and Keating have great fun with the eccentricities of their Wonderland characters. Courtney Bailey’s text coaching is evident in the lines borrowed from Shakespeare.

In Ellie Schwetye and Bess Moynihan’s scenic design, a long platform extends from the stage through the center of the theater. The opening scene in Oxford takes place on the stage. The platform serves as the Mad Hatter’s table in the first scene in Wonderland. As the action proceeds, Rachel Tibbetts’ direction fully exploits the potential of stage, the platform, and the area around it. Liz Henning and Kayla Lindsay’s costumes are delightful. Moynihan’s lighting, Schwetye’s sound, and Cece Entz and Katie Leemon’s props are a great help.

Tempest in a Teapot is the year’s third show tied to The Tempest. In May, the Midnight Company presented Mickel Maher’s Spirits to Enforce, which takes place on submarine. In August, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival brought its 90-minute adaptation of the original play to 24 parks in the bi-state area. I am glad I saw all three productions. I will happily partake of The Tempest in a teapot, a park, a submarine, or anywhere else a resourceful artist decides to set it.

Tempest in a Teapot continues through September 29. Performances are at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Drive.

—Gerry Kowarsky

Photo by Joey Rumpell
From the left, Keating as the March Hare, Chrissie Watkins as Alice, Summer Baer as the Dormouse, Adam Flores as the Mad Hatter, and John Wolbers as Prospero in Tempest in a Teapot.