Is marvelous not merely because of the joyful exuberance of Doug's adventures, Old boy living in Green Town, IL in the Summer of 1928.

For reservations or information, call (800) 221-9469.In this magical coming of age story, Douglas Spaulding is a 12 year Tickets are available through all TicketMaster outlets. Thursdays through Saturdays matinees ($10 or $13) are at 2 p.m. Evening performances ($15 or $17) are at 8 p.m. “Dandelion Wine” will be performed through March 2 at the Allan Hancock College Marian Theatre in Santa Maria. “Dandelion Wine,” Bradbury once wrote, “is nothing if it is not the boy-hid-in-the-man playing in the fields of the Lord on the green grass of other Augusts in the midst of starting to grow up, grow old, and sense darkness waiting under the trees to seed the blood.”Īt its best, it makes an eloquent case for arrested development. The great unseen enemy is Time, but offstage opponents often make for static theatrical outings.ĭirector Jonathan Gillard Daly generally overcomes this limitation through vivid staging, including some particularly evocative use of sound effects in Jeff Mockus’ sound design.īut by and large, the success of this production depends on how receptive you are to its theme. What’s missing is any sense of conflict between the characters. Nowitzky) who utters dire prophecies on the adult traumas that await Doug, and the old Colonel (Jack Greenman) who becomes the characters in his vivid memories-a living time machine. In the course of the play we meet a robust array of quirky characters.Īmong the most superbly rendered are Leo (Charlie Bachmann), the gregarious inventor hard at work on his “happiness machine” an automated Tarot Witch (Vanessa M. “I need to borrow the way you see,” he tells Doug.Īnd Doug must learn from Bill to stop clinging desperately to the populace of his youthful memories, to make way for the man he will become.įreezing in time is the play’s central metaphor, symbolized in the dandelion wine Doug’s grandfather (Richard Jones) bottles and labels for each day of the magical summer-”We’re bottling up 1928,” he exclaims with ironic satisfaction.īarbour’s Forrester hits all the right notes of sincerity and loss.īut we sometimes wish for more variation in Shipley’s relentlessly high-amplitude Doug. We quickly realize that Forrester is Doug’s future self at age 38, returned to recapture the lucidity he lost along the way to maturity. Clearly a man on a quest, he tells Doug by way of explanation: “Sometimes people lose touch with themselves and then they have to find out why.

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