“Through a Looking Glass”  for Canberra Youth Theatre and Serious Theatre, at Gorman House Arts Centre, until March 31. Bookings to www.cytc.net/buy-tickets

Reviewed by Helen Musa

How do you celebrate 40 years of continuous theatre-making?

In playful exercise, in a play, with a look at what the theatre can be when seen through youthful eyes.

That’s the angle taken by the creators of this celebratory production, “Through a Looking Glass”.

Readers note, that’s not THE Looking Glass but A Looking Glass, for Lewis Carroll would probably be turning in his grave at some of the strange goings-on in the nooks, crannies and corridors of Gorman House Art Centre, where Canberra Youth Theatre lives.

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In one room are pigeonholes filled with memorabilia from the last 40 years productions – knick knacks from the past to be found by resourceful audience members in a treasure hunt and returned to their rightful spot. It’s a clever kind of nostalgia trip.

Others rooms are provocatively titled “Dollhouse”, “The Attic”, “The Room of the Lost”, “The Found and the Wanted”, “Once Upon a Time” and yes, “Wonderland”, where an aggressive pussycat (possibly a Cheshire cat) holds court under a tree.

Under a different tree, an incompetently-delivered version of Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man (“all the world the stage”) calls into question the very proposition that the Bard puts forward about life and the theatre. In a semi-hidden room, a beautiful enchantress and a statue preside over books and paper. Elsewhere, an elaborate tea party is in process, with real biscuits cooked on site. Though the sign said “eat me”, nobody did.

In this inventive use of Gorman House Art Centre, this birthday production is not unlike CYT’s massive “Gormenghast” in 1993, where the whole of the appropriately named arts centre was taken over.

Back inside the C-Block, a short play of sorts takes place, in which different characters step out of the pages to act out stories they have created. Then it’s back into the chilly night for everyone.

Quite obviously, CYT wants to keep its audiences on their toes. So if you thought youth theatre was just one big Mad Hatter’s tea party, think again.