Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass is a 2001 stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass. It was written by Adrian Mitchell.
Play inception
Mitchell's adaptation originated as a commission from the Royal Shakespeare Company. In his version, Mitchell uses a fictionalized version of the biographically famous "Golden Afternoon" on the 4th of July 1862, when Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) first told the stories that would become the Alice novels to his friend Canon Robinson Duckworth and the Liddell children, Alice, Lorina, and Edith. Dodgson wrote the stories down, and much later, presented the manuscript of Alice's adventures Underground to Alice Liddell in November 1864.
Synopsis
Act 1
Prologue
On the 4th of July 1862, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) , his friend the Canon Duckworth, and the three Liddell sisters, Alice Liddell, Lorina Liddell, and Edith Liddell, drift down the Oxford stretch of the river Thames. Alice Liddell asks for a story, as all disembark from the boat, Dodgson begins to tell one. As Dodgson and company sit on a riverbank and listen to the story he is spinning, Alice Liddell becomes the fictional "Alice".
Alice's adventures in Wonderland
"Alice" steps forward, suddenly seeing an unusual rabbit brush past her, wearing a waistcoat and a watch, and complaining that it is late. Alice follows it across the field and it disappears into a rabbit hole. Alice follows him and falls deep into the centre of the earth, musing on the workings of physics and daydreaming about her cat Dinah, while the Company sing of Alice's predicament ("Down, Down, Down").
Landing in a heap of leaves, Alice sees the white rabbit running away, but he vanishes when she gets near to him. Now alone in a hall of doors, Alice is drawn to a lovely garden through a tiny door which is too small to fit through. On locking the door again she notices a glass table on which a cake marked eat me rests. Alice eats the cake and grows to the size of the hall. Alarmed at her sudden change in size and the fact the garden is more further away than ever, Alice cries. The White Rabbit returns, holding a pair of gloves and a fan, but drops them and runs away when he sees Alice. On a shelf high up Alice notices a bottle marked drink me, which Alice does. She shrinks rapidly and tries the garden door again, but it is locked. In vain she tries to climb up the table leg to reach the golden key. Reflecting on her loneliness she tries to recite an old song, Issac Watts's Against Idleness and Mischief, but instead ends up reciting a bizarre parody, How Doth the Little Crocodile.
After seeing the crocodile from the poem appear, a startled Alice falls into a pool of her own tears, where she meets a mouse who is offended by both cats and dogs. Despite being afraid of Alice's remarks on both subjects the mouse invites her to listen to his history when they reach the shore.
On the shore Alice meets several animals who appear quite familiar to her. The Duck, the Dodo, the Lory and the Eaglet all have exaggerated characteristics of Duckworth, Dodgson, Lorina and Edith. The Dodo proclaims that the best way to get dry would be to run a caucus race, which is a race which no one wins and all run round in a circle. After the race is over he declares that everyone has won, so all must have a prize. Everyone turns to Alice, who finds a packet of sweets in her pinafore pocket and hands them out as prizes. After the festivities finish, all sit and listen to the story of the mouse. The story is nonsensical and Alice, in an effort to understand the tale, accidentally insults the mouse. He storms off, enraged. Alice lapses into daydreaming about her cat Dinah and this scares everyone else away too. Left alone, Alice decides to try and grow bigger again so she can reach the lovely garden.