Chicago Tribune: If you know the word "tesseract" — a four-dimensional hypercube — then there's a good chance you were brought up on Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time," a proto-Potter science fiction novel from 1962 that was all about a 13-year-old girl's quest to wrinkle through time to find and save her dad, a scientist for whom the mysteries of the tesseract had proved personally problematic.
2 comments:
I love a wrinkle in time. I read the book three or so times when I was younger and was absolutely enamored with the idea of a tesseract allowing travel through space and time. I loved it because it allowed my mind to explore the crazy nooks and crannies of curiosity and imagination through science fiction. While I am disappointed that the reviewer does not think that this adaptation does a good job of capturing the allegorical nature of the novel nor encapsulating and integrating the fantastical nature of the different beings from space, I am glad that this nonetheless exists. It might not be great for adults or older children who were fans of the book and want to see it come to life; they might be left disappointed with the representation of the story. However, for children new to the story, it will open their eyes to a new world and add new layers to their imaginations, beyond the world of princes and princesses, which I think is important in developing a well rounded curiosity.
Sometimes in the midst of reading the articles about all the other new works that are being produced and put on it's actually quite refreshing to see one about theatre for children, it often acts as a reminder for the importance of creativity and art in the development of a child, as well as the effects of theatre on children as a whole. Although in the case of the production from the article, it does seem disappointing that some of the magic contained in the book "Wrinkle in Time" may have been lost somewhere in the transition from novel to stage. I remember this point being brought up when the script for the Harry Potter play came out. However, I think that this production of "A Wrinkle in Time" is a great choice for a myriad audiences. This will bring in an older generation of audience goers who are old fans of the book and are looking for a trip of nostalgia as well as a new audience of children who will maybe draw a connection to the story as the older people once had. As the article states "For its day, "A Wrinkle in Time" was an amazingly kid-empowering work," I believe that this production will make a great step towards substantial theatre for children.
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