Cara Pifko on Leaving Wonderland

"Alice" is not in Wonderland any more, and Cara Pifko is sorry to see her leave.

Despite the fact This is Wonderland only lasted three seasons, George Walker and Dani Romain have nothing but praise for “the captain of the ship” Cara Pifko, who played "Alice de Raey ". They believe without her this legal 'dramedy' would not have succeeded as long as it did. Pifko says she’s not sure "the boat would have sunk" but she took her "jobs and responsibilities seriously."

I spoke to Pifko earlier this year while discussing her work in playwright Rosa Laborde’s political drama Leo just a few days after This is Wonderland had been cancelled. She says:

I guess it saddens me a bit; now that it’s canceled, that seems to be all we have to talk about. The fact that it was canceled should not be the only focus. I think that we can still focus on the value that the show had and what it did for this city (Toronto) and this country and the recognition that it got, the following that it had, and the stories that it told. I am immensely sad at the thought of not following through on some of these story lines. I want to see what happens to Elliot (Michael Riley); I want to see what happens to James (Michael Healey), and Alice – these are people we have come to know and love. I have come to know and love Alice de Raey intimately (laughing).

It's like a family. …

When you think about it, they’ve really pissed off all the major city centres – canceling Da Vinci’s in Vancouver, Wonderland in Toronto, and The Tournament in Montreal, that’s angering a lot of this country. I won’t be surprised if there’s a back lash, and I will be interested to see what their answer is because I have a hard time seeing what the long-term plan is when they already had these shows that had a following – why not just put more money into supporting those shows?The amount of employment that Wonderland provided was outstanding, and the multicultural face of it... it just doesn’t seem right to me that this is the choice they’ve made and yet I can’t say I was totally surprised, but we had rumours of this coming down the pipes for a little while. So perhaps I was not as shocked as the general public maybe was, but I was no less saddened.

If you could write Alice’s fate – what would it be?

Alice has been a more slow organic growth and development rather than major plot-points – there was the boyfriend and the attack that happened at the end of Season Two when Alice was beaten up – those were certainly development points for her. What I love so much about the show is the way the writing slowly and organically developed Alice, and that’s what I would love to have continue. If I were blessed with a quarter of George and Dani’s writing talent, that’s where I would continue to push it. Alice became more confident, more knowing that this is where she wants to be, as opposed to the Alice in Wonderland whirlwind feel of first season (morphing into Alice) “You're just here because you’re here... but you don’t remember really.. why … but you’re here... so you’ll just do what you can.” Whereas now she’s made the choice that she wants – to stay here.

What will you miss the most?

To be perfectly honest, the thing that makes me the most sad about the show being over is the thought of not working with George anymore. That’s the thing that breaks my heart. There will never be anything like Wonderland.

Check out this blog or "blarticle" site (I was on the Wonderland set !!!) for more chats with the cast of This is Wonderland including Michael Murphy, Michael Riley, Michael Healey and Ron Lea.