Usually, there is a world of difference between reading a play as simple text seeing the same play performed as theater. The matter of degree between what is on the page and what shows up on the stage is dependent to a great degree upon the surplus of cash and creativity involved, but often the difference is right there on the page itself. Wonderland by Chay Yew is a prime example of this.
The opening stage directions in the published script are appropriately terse and to the point:
“A minimalist set.
The tone of the play is one of a nonmusical musical. Treat the monlogues and dialogue as arias and duets.”
One aspect of musical theater that many people may not even notice as a result of being conditioned to expect it is that very often during the musical numbers the characters no longer really seem to be interacting with each other in the same way they do during the non-singing scenes. Big production numbers are usually characterized by the actors facing the audience even when the song lyrics are directed specifically to another character sharing the stage. Of course, this isn’t very realistic, but the whole magic of musicals is that they are America’s greatest contribution to non-realistic storytelling. Even though the dialogue (or, often, monologue) of Wonderland is not sung, most theatrical staging of productions have made the choice to have the actors facing the audience rather than interacting in a realistic fashion. The effect is comparable to that of watching a musical except there are only lyrics with no musical accompaniment and no singing.
If the script as written for the actors to perform and for others to read followed traditional typographical conventions, the distance between reading it and watching it performed would be vast. But that is not the case. In fact, far from it, as these opening lines formatted here to replicate their appearance in the script testify:
"YOUNG MAN Sunrise
In the far horizon
is a perfect sky
Cracked
pried open
by the piercing
rising sun"
And so it goes throughout the text. To read Wonderland is an experience very akin to seeing it performed on stage. Obviously, levels of entertainment and insight exist between the interpretative creativity of the non-professional who is “acting’ out the dialogue in his mind and that of the actors cast in a performance, but that goes for any play. What almost verges on unique in Yew’s play is the means by which he transforms the simple act of reading the narrative of a play into a personal performance piece. Just as the actors take the stage and turn written words into song lyrics without music or singing, so does the published version of the text manage to transform simple written text into an entire production within the mind of the creative reading. Wonderland actually turns what is usually a far less rewarding experience of reading the text of a play into something with the potential to very closely approximate the experience of seeing it produced. Or, at the very least, approximate the experience to a much closer degree than almost any other work of dramaturgy. It is truly a work of wonder.
