(2001-2004)
Adapted from Lewis Carroll by Gary Bachlund & Marilyn Barnett
After the stories of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass."
In two acts for eighteen soli (playing multiple parts) and chamber orchestra
Act One
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll's Prologue & Prelude to a Golden Afternoon
i. Prologue
[Against a scrim at the front of the stage is projected a portrait of Lewis Carroll, flanked by his photographs of Alice Liddell. Carroll is discovered seated at a writing desk, pen in hand.]
The opening line is a quote from both Lewis Carroll's song to Alice and the White Rabbit's song, "All in the Golden Afternoon," soon to be heard.
Lewis Carroll
All in a golden afternoon,
full leisurely we glide.
Who are you, Alice?
What are you in your foster-father's eyes?
How shall I picture you?
Loving first - loving and gentle:
Loving as a dog (forgive the prosaic simile,
but I know no earthly love so pure, so perfect)
And gentle as a fawn.
Then, courteous to all - high or low,
grand or grotesque, king or caterpillar.
Trustful - ready to accept the wildest impossibilities
with all that utter trust that only dreamers know;
Lastly, curious -
wildly curious, and with the enjoyment of life -
that comes only in the happy hours of childhood,
when all is new and fair,
when Sin and Sorrow are but names -
empty words signifying nothing!
Alice!
This text is drawn from a letter which Charles Dodgson wrote long after the publication of his books and subsequent fame. In it Dodgson as Carroll poses the question to the fictional Alice, as much as to the real girl who grew to become a woman.
ii. Prelude to a Golden Afternoon
[Curtain rises on a riverbank scene, a rowboat pulled onto the bank, the remains of a picnic lunch visible. Lewis Carroll manipulates a large marionette of a white rabbit (dressed in a duplicate of the costume worn by the White Rabbit at his first entrance). His audience consists of Alice, her two younger sisters, and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth. Alice is busy making a daisy chain. The youngest girl spies something offstage worth investigating and points excitedly to it. She imperiously drags Duckworth away, motioning for the others to follow. Lewis Carroll looks questioningly at Alice, who, politely stifling a yawn, shakes her head and remains seated, putting the finishing touches on her daisy chain. Carroll exits. Alice is left alone onstage. She yawns again, then sleepily curious, looks into a book left behind by Duckworth.]
Divisi strings capture to sweet magic of the "golden afternoon" as the riverbank scene is enacted.
To continue to the next section, click HERE.
Adapted from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass and his additional letters,
by Marilyn Barnett and Gary Bachlund
2001, 2004
Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Gary Bachlund (BMI), Monrovia. All international rights reserved
