About the play:

A boat beneath a summer's sky, lingering onward dreamily, down a quiet river in July....

Comissioned in 2001 for the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) and written for his seven grandchildren, Adrian Mitchell's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, uniquely adapts both novels, and is the most complete adaptation currently for theaters in English! Although not well recieved on its first run, the play has since grown into a reliable, bankable asset for English-language theaters, with key professional revivals at Chichester Festival Theatre, Stamford Shakespeare Company and Jersey Arts Centre.

Why you should Produce it:

"Come, tell me how you live, and what it is you do!"

Comissioned by Royal Shakespeare Company
Immerses audiences in the original Carroll novels and their creation.
Large opportunities for doubling of characters, some actors can play up to 6 roles, varying in importance and time onstage.
2 plays for the price of one - both novels are adapted!
Offers room for bold stage design and costuming
Has not yet been produced outside of UK and US.
Offers actors a fantastic way to immerse in history and fun roles.
Suitable for children, teenagers, and adult audiences.

The story...

"We're all ready for our story, Mr Dodgson..."

PROLOGUE

On a summer's day in 1862 Oxford, writer Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) begins telling his friends Robinson Duckworth, and the Liddell sisters, an amazing tale....

ACT 1

The fictional Alice, eccentric and intelligent (and 7 and a half exactly) spirals from a dull picnic on a riverbank, falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland, where animals answer back, croquet is played with mallets and flamingos, cakes and drinks can make you big or small, time stands still at a bizarre tea party, a Duchess and her cook hurl plates, a mock turtle dances, and a queen wants to behead everyone... Just as the chaos reaches fever pitch at a chaotic trial for stolen tarts, Alice wakes with a start in her drawing room, carried back from the riverbank by her in-story sisters... As snow begins to come down outside, Alice discusses her dream.

ACT 2

Six months later in-story, the fictional Alice, after an argument with her in-story sisters, climbs through the mirror into another equally strange adventure. In Looking-Glass World, she becomes a pawn in a chaotic game of chess, surrounded by eccentrics like the sharp Red Queen, arrogant Humpty Dumpty, the annoying Dum and Dee, who claim Alice is only the dream of the sleeping Red King, the Lion and the Unicorn who fight for the crown, and the kind White Knight... As Alice becomes Queen, nothing goes as she expects, and as the Jabberwock she previously read about suddenly decends on her corronation banquet, she wakes with a start and finds herself in her drawing-room again... But wait, was it her dream or the Red King's?

EPILOGUE

It is now evening in Oxford. As Charles Dodgson finishes his stories and the boating party head for home, 10 year old Alice Liddell implores him to "write down Alice's adventures". Although he hesitates, he promises he will try. The crew row home.