The Phantom Tollbooth

This year's fall theatre production was The Phantom Tollbooth. I have heard of this book and have read bits and pieces of it in elementary school. So I didn't have a clear idea of the play's plot, but realized that it focused around Mila's journey with Tock and Humbug through these different worlds: Mila's room, the Lands of Expectations, Dictionopolis, Digitopolis and Ignorance, and the Castle-in-the-Air. These make-believe worlds focused around their names because Dictionopolis consisted of words and Digitopolis was based on numbers. In order for Mila to travel to the different realms, she needed to find the tollbooth in order to transport herself.

After learning about all the different components to be a successful actor, I noticed that all the actors had good diction so that the audience could clearly understand the dialogue. I especially enjoyed the character of Kakaphonous A. Dischord because the actor had really embodied the characteristics. Throughout that particular scene he was completely frazzled and made much noise by bumping into the objects so that they would fall and clatter. In doing so, this clearly fit his role as the word "cacophony" is the basis for his name. My other favorite character was the Spelling Bee because she had also clearly embodied her character. Because when I thought of a bee I thought of this light, quirky insect that buzzes around which is what I saw as she spoke. I thought it was clever that her costume showed how she was both an actual bee and a spelling bee.

The props were also used really well to illustrate the setting. For example, the use of the large numbers in Digitopolis for me acted as trees or buildings in our world. I remember how our teacher had discussed the possible ideas for Mila's car and saw how these ideas had come down to using a scooter as her source of transportation. This was a fitting choice because since Mila is meant to be a teenager of about 13 years old, a scooter makes perfect sense because that is about the age that children ride scooters. Another interesting component of the production was during the scene in Dictionopolis when Mila was tasting the different letters which were represented by alphabet crackers. Overall, the production of The Phantom Tollbooth was both amusing and extremely clever. Although the book is written for children, the use of language and the various puns are what make it enjoyable to adults and high-school students as well.