(Available to watch on Internet Archive)
This 2002 stage recording of Royal Shakespeare Company/Adrian Mitchell's adaptation of Carroll's Alice books boasts a almost complete adaptation (hardly any scene in either book is left out, and those that are are for staging/time constratints) and a very beautiful prologue and epilogue which ground the 2 stories in their biographical background.
To pass the time on an Oxford boating trip on the 4th of July 1862, Charles Dodgson (Daniel Flynn) tells his friends Robinson Duckworth (Jamie De Courcey) Alice Liddell (Katherine Heath) Edith Liddell (Laura Main) and Lorina Liddell (Rosalie Craig in her first ever role) stories about another girl named "Alice" (also played by Heath, in a more energetic, eccentric tone) and her adventures in 2 strange lands, one down a rabbit hole, the other through the mirror.
The portrayal of the boating party is spot on, Flynn's Dodgson being written with humanity and a depth not afforded in biopics about the man.
What makes this adaptation work so well is that it never forgets this grounding: the people and creatures the fictional "Alice" meets in both wonderland and looking glass land are sometimes played by the same actors as the rest of the boating party. In a sense, Mitchell's version allows you as an audience member to place yourself in the imaginations of these 5 people as they create and listen to these stories.
Also astonishing are the performances of the rest of the large ensemble cast, some of them playing up to 6 characters in Alice's reveries. Standouts include. Chris Larner's Hatter/Hatta, John Hogkinson's King of Hearts and. Unicorn,and Liza Standovy's Queen of Hearts and Red Queen.
Michell's adaptation displays a love of the books it adapts, and has successfully been integrated into the UK amateur theatre community.
Until it gets a major revival, we have this lovely recording to cherish. What a treat.
