"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where -" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

                           -Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

That's the trouble with adapting Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Charles Dodgson's (aka Lewis Carroll's) 1865 kid-lit classic, though certainly many have tried. The first stage version debuted in London in 1886. There were three silent movie versions. The 1951 Disney animated film is a stoner favorite. A 1932 Broadway version was adapted for TV in 1955. The episodic narrative is now so familiar it can be used as a springboard for sequels as varied as the computer game American McGee's Alice and Tim Burton's 3-D cinematic freak show.

The problem, it seems, is there's very little through line to the novel. We know Alice is chasing the White Rabbit, but never exactly why. Was the whole experience merely a dream? In Deborah Lynn Frockt's adaptation as produced by Olympia Family Theater, Alice passes through the frame of her own portrait; which is, to be fair, no more nor less plausible than falling down a rabbit hole into a room of space-time portals. Frockt's retelling follows Carroll's book rather closely, which generates a series of nonsensical encounters scarcely related to each other. If you haven't read the book, you might find you can't make heads or tails of it - which is probably what Carroll intended. Kids will be far more comfortable with its off-kilter mysteries.

As for director Jen Ryle's production, it's the grace notes that work best. I especially enjoyed the "sound effects tree" on Mandy Ryle's multilevel, multifunctional set. I was obliged (by my Frost/Nixon schedule) to catch an early dress rehearsal, but even in Wonderland's rough state it was fun to watch the all-kid cast solve problems on the fly. The actors vary in age from seven (the unutterably cute Mouse, Karli Kooi) to 19 (the imperious Queen of Hearts, Jude Huston), and it was clear their experience levels differed as well. But Rheanna Murray is quite good as Alice, with charming supporting work from Morgan Hanrahan, Liam Lloyd, Nick Melton, Sofia Sanchez and several others. We'll be seeing them all down the path. 

[Olympia Family Theater, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, $8.50-$15.50, through Feb. 20, Thursday-Friday 7 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 2 p.m., 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia, 360.753.8586]