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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. With this approach you could make the two actresses look completely different and even have different mannerisms or personality traits!
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. For doublings for other actors, try and think of what characters aren’t in every scene, or aren’t ever seen together on stage.
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. Ultimately your imagination and budget is the guide here.
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, premiere or feature film version). 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.
What tone/vibe does this play need?: We highly recommend reading Adrian Mitchell’s essay in the back of the script, called “Millions of Alices”. It explains why he wanted to adapt Carroll’s novels and the sense of joy he hoped audiences would get from the play. Whilst you can stage design any way you wish, Mitchell’s instruction of a joyful experience has to be respected in some way. This means any dark moments must balance themselves out with scenes of fun.
What about portraying the historical characters in the Oxford prologue and epilogue?: A resource which will help is Jenny Woolf’s 2010 biography The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, which will give you some great biographical info for the opening and closing scenes of this play. These first and last scenes are based on real storytelling sessions on boating trips that happened in Oxford in July 1862. Check our About Lewis Carroll section below for more info.
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, early adopter of photography and inventor, Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson) had a life that was much more richer than the myths about him from today's world may say.
Dodgson was born in Daresbury, Cheshire. At a young age he developed a flair for storytelling, and devising games and inventions for his numerous siblings. His early nonsense tales and poems were made for family magazines. He spent much of his adult life in Oxford as a deacon and maths lecturer at Christ Church.
The Alice tales started as stories Dodgson 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). Alice Liddell finally 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 church, 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) thinly disguised as "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 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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