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Quick facts:
Quick facts:
Runtime: 1 hour 40 mins
Number of characters: (without doubling): 20 with small ensemble added.
Recommended cast size: 13 - 20, Alice role can be split between 2 actresses. One as Alice Liddell (Oxford 1862 Prologue/Epilogue) and another as the Fictional Alice (7 year old protaganist) if wanted.
Do I need to have a big cast? : No, not at all! Many productions double roles for actors, including small cameo style roles and much bigger important characters. The play can be done with as little as 13 actors or as many as 20, but to be honest the text is very flexible and aside from characters that must be doubled (see section on this page) you can do what you wish.
Do I need a big budget to perform this?: No. Despite being first seen at Royal Shakespeare Company and Chichester Festival Theatre, Mitchell's play has since been performed by outdoor theatres, small indoor theatres, universities, schools, and youth theatres. A big RSC style budget is not needed at all, you'll just need to be creative with some of the stage transitions, which many productions have done.
Do I need a licence?: Yes, from either Concord Theatricals (Regional/province/state theatre, amateur theatres, fringe/touring, universities/colleges/schools/language schools) OR from the Estate of Adrian Mitchell (planning a national level revival or premiere). More details are on our Useful Contacts page.
Why should my theatre choose this specific version?: We've come up with a list here, but in short, your theatre should consider producing because of the oppertunities for wild design and costuming with flexibility of props, its showcasing of your actors (most playing up to 6 characters both small and big in importance!), and its prestige of originally premiering at one of the biggest English language theatres in the world.
Want inspiration for your costumes or staging ideas? Take a look at our Pinterest to see how other theatres both big and small have designed, staged, and costumed the play!
Who was Lewis Carroll?
(1832-1898)
DODGSON: I've told you one story already today Alice, that's all till next time...
ALICE/LORINA/EDITH: Ah, but it is next time!
Victorian era author, mathematician, pioneering photographer and inventor, Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson) was born in Daresbury, Cheshire. At a young age he developed a flair for storytelling, and devising games and inventions. He spent much of his adult life in Oxford as a deacon and maths lecturer at Christ Church.
The Alice tales started off as stories he told to some of the daughters of Christ Church dean Henry Liddell, and to various adult friends, during boating outings, often from Oxford to Godstow, in the summer of 1862. Dodgson would often weave in funny distortations of things that had happened to his friends, the local landscape, and even feature his friends as characters as in-jokes. He didn't always love telling the Alice tales, sometimes the Liddell sisters would have to beg him to continue, and he would tease them by telling them the story had finished, or pretend to fall asleep. Similarly, the Liddells pestered Dodgson to get the stories down on paper (normally when Dodgson told stories to anyone in his life, they were never recorded). Despite this taking years, Alice Liddell recieved her gift of the manuscript in November 1863. Through the Looking-Glass was made up of later stories Dodgson told the Liddells, when the sisters were learning chess.
The novels themselves were published in 1865 and 1871, and have never been out of print since. Dodgson was also known in his day as a socialite, with a social circle of famous artists, actors and poets, from London to Eastbourne. He loved theatre at a time when it was frowned upon by the masses, and had to carefully balance his love for culture with his duties as a clergyman. Due to his job, he had to essentially hide any hints of adult romance in his life. Letters and diaries detail half secret meetings with women at seaside towns. He had at least one unhappy love affair, but scholars are torn on who this woman could have been. Interestingly, Dodgson appears in Anne Thackeray’s autobiographical novel "From an island" (1877) under the name "George Hexham" an eager, impatient rule defying young man, who later marries the female protaganist. (Thackeray's biographical novel gave artist friends she knew different names). Later in life, Charles Dodgson often presented an austere face to those he didn't know, partly due to the communal space he lived in, although friends and family knew him as sparkling, humourous and eager. He died in 1898.
Since there are lots of myths and half-truths out there about Dodgson, we recommend any theatre producing this play takes time to read this article by Jenny Woolf.
Links about Carroll's life and work:
Some essential resources for anyone planning a production:
Carroll-myth (looks at how Dodgson's biographers accidentally undid his legacy a century later... oops.)
Alice's Day, Oxford (Annual celebration of the Day Dodgson first started telling the Alice tales)
Carroll's reputation 2 centuries after his death (by scholar Jenny Woolf)
Important books we recommend:
Biographies:
The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, Jenny Woolf, 2010 biography
In the Shadow of the Dreamchild, Karoline Leach, 1999 biography.
Autobiographical Novel:
From an Island, Anne Thackeray, 1877. (Thackeray's biographical novel somewhat based on her memories of a gathering of her artist friends on the Isle of Wight. Dodgson is a major character.)
Karoline Leach's notes on this novel, 2004.
For younger actors/audiences:
The Other Alice, Christina Bjork
One fun Day with Lewis Carroll, Kathleen Krull
Who Was Lewis Carroll?, Pam Pollack.
Diaries:
The Diaries of Lewis Carroll, Edward Wakeling, 1993 - 2007.
(10 volumes, much much more difficult to find than the cut 1950s version by Green, this fuller version includes references to Dodgson's love life with adult women, which his family tried to suppress after his death, due to it not fitting Victiorian values around children's authors.)
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