[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of two-time Tony Award-nominated and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning development and production incubator FutureHome’s The Hunting of The Snark! adapted from the Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem and directed by Josh Sobel.
At last year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, the extremely talented FutureHome produced an extraordinary and quite beautiful version of Chekhov’s The Seagull. It was wild and utterly brilliant and when I saw they were performing again this year I was ecstatic…to say the least.
Their choice of The Hunting of The Snark! is a world or two away from Chekhov. Lewis Carroll’s sublime nonsensical adventure poem about a group of odd and disparate people and one beaver who bravely, or perhaps ridiculously, set out on a small boat across a stormy sea to a tiny island to hunt a creature that may or may not exist is classic English fare. I’m sure it was read at school, although to be honest, like so many other classic English stories and poems it has just always been around my life. People quote it without thinking, make reference to it as a means of communicating a mood and of course they use the lines, “For the Snark was a Boojum, you see” and whatever pieces of “They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care; They pursued it with forks and hope; They threatened its life with a railway-share; They charmed it with smiles and soap.” Fits the moment…but that’s England. Here it is less well known and hardly ever quoted or referenced. People only know Lewis Carroll from his Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass.
But this poem and its unfettered delight in the strange and the pointless is perfect fodder for the talents of FutureHome and their happy wonder at classic literature and stories of the unhinged, comic and melancholy. The play is performed at the rather wonderful Javista Coffee venue and the actors move amongst the audience, who shyly sip their coffee, as they unfold this marvelous sad tale. There is a little audience participation, but only if you want to take part and limited to the blowing of bubbles during the storm sequence…which I loved! I think I blew more bubbles than was entirely necessary, but then that’s the point of nonsense isn’t it?
It’s a wonderful depiction of a much-loved story. The characters are big and funny and very true to the original text. Every actor embraces the weird beautifully, really engaging in the silly sadness, never dismissing the aching lostness of it all or the frivolous factious ramshackle nature of the entire escapade. They played their parts perfectly, and I loved every minute of it! The narrator holds it all skillfully together, but the story is also related by the group in turn, which works so beautifully, spreading the words between them creates even more of a connection and draws the audience in further to their quest as we look from shinning face to shinning face gleefully sharing this thoughtful poignant and wonderfully performed tale.
Thank you FutureHome for bringing this /the The Hunting of The Snark! to the Hollywood Fringe. It’s been such a huge influence on writers and artists since it was first published over a hundred years ago and I think it’s story of a desperate search for something that may not exist at all or that could turn out to be the end of us all is as relevant as it ever was.
“In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away—
For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.”
The Cast
The Hunting of The Snark! features an ensemble cast: BK Dawson as The Bellman, River Collins as The Baker, Madison Stamm as The Butcher, Juan Ayala as The Beaver, ChaCha Tahng as The Banker, Hope Simpson as The Barrister, Jessie Wray Goodman as The Boots and Alice Pelayo as The Bonnets.
The Team
The production team for THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK includes: Soran Schwartz (lighting design), Ly Eisenstein (video design), Kat Walker Shea (stage manager), Katherine Paez-Froehlich (publicity producer) and LEXI (teaser director).
Tickets:
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10572?tab=tickets
Where:
Javista Coffee
Javista Coffee Hollywood (Main Space), 1532 N Highland Ave, Hollywood, CA 90028
When:
June 7, 9, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 29
Ticket Prices:
All Pay-What-You Can