Presented by Wonderland

Tuesday, 3rd May - Saturday, 7th May (Written by Moliere) T@36 Teachers Club - International Shorts at 8pm + 3pm Saturday. Tickets 12 euro.(2 plays)

Wonderland Productions' debut at The Festival is pure entertainment, a famous French farce, with all the decadence of the pre-revolutionary love doctors themselves. Expect big white wigs, coquettish sighs, soubrettes and cross dressing lovers, as Molière's heroine Lucinde falls mortally ill with an undiagnosed disease, love. Song, dance and spectacle will show you just how much naughty fun can be had in one act.

About The Company

Wonderland Productions was founded by Alice Coghlan in July 2003 to find new ways of making theatre, whether that is through company devising, improvising historical situations as with The Spook Show or heavily adapting and re-'auteuring' texts through music such as the musical The Seagull After Chekhov… We aim to revel in theatre's latent theatricality.

Previous to this, the black comedy horror The Spook Show performed alongside Dublin Fringe 2003, has been our only show as Alice has been in Thailand directing. This show was an amalgamation of true Irish ghost stories that we collected from all over Ireland, then improvised in great detail for two weeks and finally adapted for the stage, in conjunction with Alice and another writer Paddy Kelly. It was performed by candlelight in the upstairs bar of Handels of Thomas Street to great acclaim. The Seagull After Chekhov played at 6pm in the basement of SS Michael and John in Temple Bar, as part of The Dublin Fringe Festival.

Wonderland Productions also acted as producers for Taiwan's As if Theatre Company's Mumurous Silence for Week 3 of last year's Dublin Fringe Festival. It was performed in Liberty Hall. This show uses 'found sounds' and music to narrate the story of a Taiwanese woman's extraordinary adoption, life, love and children through the past fifty years of Taiwanese/Chinese history. It was a fantastic opportunity to bring a very different Asian theatre aesthetic right here in Dublin.

We hope to facilitate more international companies and co-productions in Dublin in the future, productions from Thailand are currently in the pipeline. Meanwhile at home here in Dublin we are planning another full blooded musical by Anna Rice for 2005. We are also very keen to tour both our theatrical and musical work, both in Ireland and abroad and, to enter into fruitful collaborations with other companies.

Please feel free to email us at wonderlandtheatre2003@yahoo.com or call Alice Coghlan our Artistic Director at alicecog@yahoo.co.uk.

Cast + Crew

Director - Alice Coghlan
Producer - Gordon Gaffney
Sganarelle, a merchant - Tim Dillard
Lucinde, his daughter - Vittoria Collanna
Clitandre, her lover - Gavin Logue
Lisette, a maid - Wallace Murphy-Munn
Dr. Macrotin - Gavin Logue
Dr. Tomes - Donal O'Donoghue
Dr. Filerin - Conor O'Neill
Other roles Played by Members of Company.

Show Reviews

"Moliere's seventeenth century French farce 'The Love Doctor' by Wonderland Productions was a light and frothy piece directed by Alice Coughlan. It featured some excellent vignette performances from (another) group of white faced actors. Centring on the efforts of a money crazed father to keep his lovesick daughter to himself, he refuses her permission to marry (in case he'd have to part with his money), this simply set piece had some strong playing. The Three Doctors were just brilliant. Affected, comic, camp and stylised – a lovely short interlude from Gavin Logue, Martin Phillips and Donal O'Donoghue. Lisette from (obviously) Australian Wallace Murphy Munn was another dynamic fun performance. Not enjoying as much success was the central family around which the plot revolved. Lucinde (Vittoria Collanna) missed many a comic opportunity, all the more unfortunate when the ones she got were very effective. Tim Dillard's Sganarelle was the weakest link, an over exaggerated inconsistent limp and clouds of powder wafting from "greyed" hair does not make a character old. The American accent also jarred in this very one dimensional playing – a pity, as it was the central role and the play suffered for it. Director Alice Coughlan despite this, and a multicultural diversity of accents, had some success and stylised comedy (in a slightly camp interpretation) seems to be her forte. Enjoyable." - Gordon Farrell, Scene City - June 2005