Since Lewis Carroll first wrote Alice in Wonderland in 1865, there have been many versions of his story that open with Alice sitting by a river reading a book when a white rabbit runs by and she follows him down a rabbit hole. It’s funny that the phrase “rabbit hole” has come to represent a negative emotional state, “oh I went down the rabbit hole again,” indicating perhaps a repeat of some unhealthy behavior or negative thinking pattern. Alice’s journey through the rabbit hole into wonderland, is her journey into her own mind and imagination, which isn’t always pretty. She is met and challenged by the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, and the Mad Hatter - who confront her with the ultimate question that plagues humankind - Who am I?
Our version begins in a modern day classroom with Alice asleep at her desk until a clique of “mean girls/boys” abruptly wake her, then walk away to recite the Jabberwocky poem. As the poem is performed, the rabbit hole swirls around Alice and the classroom slowly transforms into Wonderland, where the bullies become the Queen of Hearts, the King, the Knave and the Duchess, who challenge Alice to become a “queen herself” by facing her doubts and fears and crossing the chessboard.
Our designing team ran with this classroom idea and collaborated to create a quirky set of bookshelves inspired by the Montreal-based company, Tout a Trac, who set Alice in Wonderland in a library full of pop-up books. In addition to the bookshelves our set has several letter blocks that rotate with the scenes. The motifs contained in the set include the alphabet, children’s rhymes, riddles, games, playing cards, chess boards - and hopefully encourage us to question if life is a puzzle to be solved, a chessboard to be crossed or a game to be played. Answer as you will, and enjoy the show!
