ARCHIVE POST: Down the Rabbit Hole Project: Daisies (1966)

ARCHIVAL NOTE: I JUST REMEMBERED I NEVER UPLOADED THIS...SORRY. THIS IS MY PERSONAL FAVORITE ESSAY, BECAUSE I HAD TO LEARN HOW TO WRITE ABOUT AVANT GARDE FILM IN ABOUT 3 WEEKS. IT PUSHED ME. I LEARNT A LOT.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

ALSO SLIGHT POLITICAL CONTEXT TALK, BECAUSE THIS IS VERY MUCH A FILM MADE IN A CERTAIN POLITICAL CLIMATE.



A 1966 Avant garde, possibly feminist collage of events and anarchy, Daisies (1966) gained notoriety in its home country of then called Czechoslovakia. Although testing well with advance audiences, a protest in the National Film assembly was held over the film’s perceived food wastage, and it was deemed irresponsible to screen at a time when agricultural production had stalled.  It was subsequently banned by the then Communist government. It can be guessed at that the government additionally might not of approved of the film’s left of field style (using collages intercut with the main series of events) or of its subject matter, which deals with curiosity and rebellion.

The film focuses on Marie and Marie. Two aimlessly bored 17 year olds who decide that if the world is going spoiled, they’ll be spoiled too. They then proceed to wreak havoc around Prague, eating everything in sight, questioning their own existence, taunting lecherous older men only to run off, leaving them with humongous restaurant bills, and in the films denouement, Marie and Marie’s curiosity takes them up a lift shaft to a government feast- which they proceed to joyously wreck.

The film played the 2011 Film Festival Alice and other Lost Girls in Fantastic Worlds, and although at first glance this inclusion appears to be arbitrary, a few loose strands do link the tone of Daisies with the fantasies of Carroll’s Alice.



Curiosity and Food

Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.

After both Maries decide to go bad, the scene shifts from bathing pool to a large field of daisies with a large fruit tree in the centre. The Maries dance around, fascinated, and Marie 2 plucks a peach from the tree and begins to eat it. This scene is an obvious allusion to the garden of Eden tale in Christian theology, but what differentiates this from a straight reference is that there is no tempter (the Maries do this on their own accord) and that the Maries are not punished for this gain of knowledge.
Similarly, 7 and a half year old Alice’s adventures in Wonderland really begin when she consumes the food of the hall of doors through curiosity and a wish to delve deeper into Wonderland. Like Carroll’s Alice, food and drink in daisies for the Maries is the impetus for curious adventures.



Longing for an “Uncommon” life

It seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.

On entering their apartment after the consumption of the fruit, Marie 1 looks out of the window and asks “what’s out there?” Their decision to “go somewhere lovely” contrasted with the dull street view implies that there is no wonder in the place they are in. Unlike Carroll’s Alice, who is adrift in strange worlds, Marie and Marie are stuck in a place which they find to be perpetually boring, and to have fun, they must liven things up themselves. Consequentially their game of spoiled could be seen as a distraction from boredom because doing anything, no matter how random, is more interesting to them than conforming to a dull life.



Everything Stops for Tea (Or in this case dinner)

The Hatter’s remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English.

The scenes in which the Maries taunt and confuse older men in restaurants consist of absurd dialogue and large amounts of eating. The line is drawn between the Maries and their confused lecherous dates. In one scene the Maries juggle apples, laughing, whilst their dates look on laughing nervously in utter confusion, in another scene Marie 2 eats every food item on the menu just to make her date feel uncomfortable. There is a slight sense of a reverse Wonderland mad tea party or reverse looking glass banquet, with the Maries trying everything to annoy their dates instead of arguing or looking in curiosity. In scenes such as this one the Maries are shown to not always be willing to play the role of Alice, and come across more like Wonderland/Looking-Glass World inhabitants instead.



Drink drama

She hastily put down the bottle, saying to herself `That’s quite enough"

Similarly to the dinner scenes, another disruptive scene involving food and public places occurs in a cabaret bar. This is filmed like a piece of silent slapstick comedy, with both Maries discovering alcohol and drunkenness, which leads them to disrupt the show, much to the disappointment of the Charleston dancers and the dull diners.  Despite their disruptive behaviour, no one can seem to take their eyes off them, for once they are centre of attention in a place that does not value them.



The Value of Youth

But her sister sat still just as she left her, leaning her head on her hand, watching the setting sun, and thinking of little Alice and all her wonderful Adventures.

If the society of 1960 communist Prague does not value the Maries, certain people they meet in their misadventures do. A middle aged cleaner in the toilets they put makeup on in has a deep affection for the Maries (she is the closest thing to a parental or familial figure the film shows) and it is hinted strongly that she adores them because they remind her of her younger self. 
At one point she sings a paean to her lost youth, whilst Marie 1 looks on thoughtfully:

“My Youth, my Youth, where have you gone? Why do tears come into my eyes, at the very thought of you?”

Unlike the Maries, her curiosity and sense of wonder has dwindled the more older and conformist to society she grows. Similarly as the Maries dance around with chairs out of boredom in a restaurant, a middle aged waiter stops for a second and gives them a warm smile.
Both of these characters share slight traits with Alice’s sister of the Alice novels, as they accept the young have curiosity, ideas and adventures in places they can no longer grasp at due to age.  For these characters the Maries mark a return to wide eyed youth. 



An uncertain existence

`Well, it no use your talking about waking him,’ said Tweedledum, `when you’re only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you’re not real.‘ “I AM real!” said Alice, and began to cry.

In one of the film’s most interesting scenes, Marie and Marie bathe and talk philosophy, specifically the concept of existing. Marie 1 delights in taunting Marie 2 by pointing out that she is “not registered at this address”, and has "no employment” Marie 1 gleefully comes to the conclusion that “there’s no evidence of” Marie 2 at all. Preoccupied with notions of existence they decide to go out again, but things are not the same. Once they go through a hole in a wall they are in the countryside. There, a man and his dog look right through them, and factory workers cycling round don’t seem to see them.  Marie 2 is disturbed by this: “Why didn’t he tell us off at the least?” Despite Marie 1’s assertion that they do exist after all, this throws up several questions at the viewer. Are the Maries one sole person? Are they lost girls who have wondered into a place where they no longer exist? Is anything that the Maries are experiencing real?

This philosophical question isn’t a million miles away from the one Tweedle-Dum poses to Alice in the Looking-Glass World, namely that she is only the part of someone’s dream. Although Alice succumbs to tears, the Maries, being far older, are made of sterner things. After Marie 1’s assertion that the twin Maries are both real, the matter is never brought up again. 



Down the Rabbit Hole (Or up a lift shaft)

Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

Similarly to fellow Czech Jan Svankmajer’s surrealist adaptation of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland (Alice, 1988) the Maries in Daisies reach the final place in their self-designed Wonderland by a lift shaft, searching for food in a government building they go up several floors, full of unexpected places. They see a butchers and apparently zoom past a string quartet in an opera house which is in full performance. When they arrive at their destination, they are wide eyed at their surroundings, twirling round in amazement. The fact that the director frames the places they glimpse in the lift shaft in different colours heightens their unreality, like in Svankmajer’s Alice lift shafts are here passages to other imagined areas. Of course this also evokes comparisons with Carroll’s Alice plunging down the rabbit hole.



A Chaotic Feast

One good pull, and plates, dishes, guests, and candles came crashing down together in a heap on the floor.

Once up the lift shaft in the government building the Maries come across a feast for government officials. Hungry they eat then decide to joyfully wreck everything in sight. At this moment the film does a complete 180 and offers up an alternate ending of sorts where the Maries are forced to pay penance for their behaviours. This results in a chandelier crashing on them both.

This ending may or may not been put in place to keep the film’s censors happy (although they banned it anyway) but the idea of a banquet with a destructive ending also sightly recalls the fever dream like intensity of the coronation banquet Alice endures in Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. Unlike Alice, however, the Maries lack a positive outcome. Their punishment by society literally crushes them to pieces, whereas Alice’s act of rebellion of disrupting her increasingly crazy banquet allows her to flee a dream which has started to border on nightmare. The Maries being far older, and in a more realistic (but still illogical) place must pay for their rebellion regardless of how real or imagined it may have been.



In conclusion Daisies (1966) can be read as a subversion of the down the rabbit hole trope with its characters playing Alice as well as wreaking havoc in a way inspired by Carroll’s other creations. Unlike most rabbit hole archetypal tales the Maries go nowhere, and their attempt at bringing mindless randomness and rebellion into a dull world has ultimately negative, quite literally shattering implications for them.

SEE ALSO:

• This awesome music video, with music by CHVRCHES.

• Hames, Peter “Daisies Essay”  (Second Run DVD, UK)

• Koresky, Michael, Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave (Criterion Collection Essay) 

• Mark Kermode's BFI Introduction

• Homage short film Poor Cherries (2019) which homages the first scene. 

• 366weirdmovies's essay. 

• The Maries's all too short cameo appearance in the anthology film Mucednici lasky (1967)

ARCHIVE POST: A Script Review of.. Glyn Maxwell’s Alice in Wonderland

(Rabecca Birch as Alice in the World Premiere 2017 cast at Chester’s StoryHouse Theatre. Photo: Mark Carline)

This mash up of parts of both Alice tales was commissioned by the new multi million pound theatre in Chester, UK. Staged  in 2017, it opened to extremely enthusiastic reviews, meeting with the same acclaim that Glyn Maxwell’s other adaptations of classic literature have also gained. 



That being said, this isn’t the most easiest adaptation in the world to review. Because on first time reading, I did not have a clue what to make of it. To be clear, Maxwell’s adaptations all fall somewhere between adaptation and re-imagining, and this is no exception. 

Maxwell’s overarching subplot of this version is that frightened of going to boarding school, Victorian Alicia splits herself into 2. Alice goes off to boarding school (which of course also turns out to be Wonderland) whilst Alicia stays in the real world, and grows ill. Very, very ill.



Act 1 has Alice stumbling round a Wonderland as boarding school setting, with everyone being immensely unhelpful. She ends the act so confused she turns into the Red Queen (by that, I mean the Queen of Hearts). But I couldn’t help noticing that in adaptation terms this was very, very fast paced and short. 



That’s because in act 2 bed-ridden Alicia tries to search for Alice via her illness induced fever dreams (yes, really!) and encounters more Wonderland/Looking-Glass residents. Particularly funny are the intensely Scottish Unicorn (of Through the Looking-Glass) and the Cheshire Cat, who fades away before he can offer Alicia any good advice. There’s also the fantastic addition of Alicia pointing out to everyone she comes across that they aren’t real. 

On finding Alice, Alicia finds her raving and braying for beheadings. Turns out, she’s playing at being the Red Queen (The Queen of Hearts) because she’s lonely and everyone she’s met in Wonderland seems to despise her. Alicia convinces her to drop the act before they both face off against Alice’s greatest fear- The Jabberwock. 



If me describing this version made no sense, reading the actual script multiplies that feeling. Maxwell seems to put parts of both Alice tales into a food blender, making his adaptation feel almost entirely like the 113 degree fever that Alicia is suffering from. 

In a way, its curious that no one has ever adapted carroll’s tales as fever dreams before- because that concept works very very well in this version. Almost too well…



I also love the idea of having 2 split Alices. One in the real world, one in Wonderland. In a way, you can feel the influence of Moira Buffini’s National Theatre flop Wonder.land on this version (compare Aly and avatar Alice’s friendship with Alicia and Alice’s. Its very similar!) which is no bad thing! 

I honestly hope this gets more productions in the future. It was fascinating. 

ARCHIVE POST: Down the Rabbit Hole Project: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

ARCHIVAL NOTE: VOTING FOR THE 2019 PROJECT IS NOW OPEN! 

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

ALSO, OBVIOUS EMPHASIS ON THE FANTASY PARTS OF THIS FILM, DESPITE HOW WELL MADE THE CIVIL WAR PLOTS ARE IN THIS FILM, I CAN’T REALLY TALK ABOUT THEM HERE … SORRY… 



Pan’s Labyrinth is both a dark deconstruction of the down the rabbit hole trope and a warning on the corruption and disregard for humanity fascism brings. The film is one of a few examples (along with Valerie and her Week of Wonders) of how the down the rabbit hole trope can be subverted and deconstructed for an adult audience.

12 year old Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to a house inhabited by the monstrous captain Vidal, who spends his time tracking down any dissenters to the new fascist regime. Ofelia buries herself in books, and whilst exploring a stone labyrinth, encounters a faun who claims she is the lost princess of the underworld. Ofelia has three grizzly tasks to complete if she wants to leave the real world behind. All the while the situation at home only gets more fraught and horrifying.



Whilst Ofelia is quickly identified as an Alice archetype by default, (the green dress and white pinafore she wears before the first task making this clear), what differentiates her from other protagonists I’ve looked at for this project is her willingness to escape. For Ofelia, living anywhere but home is desirable.



After the faun angrily comes to the conclusion that she has failed the second task due to giving into hunger for food she begs him with all her might for another chance. Most protagonists of these films and the trope codifier, Carroll’s Alice, unwittingly stumble into their lands or encounters and attempt to return home or back to some kind of normality. Ofelia meanwhile wants more than anything to leave her current circumstances behind.



And although Ofelia does encounter animals and creatures (mainly mythological) a far darker tone is struck than a typical rabbit hole film, partly this is due to its adult audience but also due to its various plot strands regarding the brutal civil war.  Ofelia’s trials have a habit of mirroring her harsh surroundings such as when Vidal starves the household, and Ofelia eats in the Pale Man’s realm, despite warnings from the faun.

Unlike other films of this genre, this mirroring gives Pan's Labyrinth an almost allegorical type resonance, and there have already been several high profile essays by scholars linking the film with its historical climate. 



Ofelia’s decent into a tree to retrieve a key from an old toad is Alice like in text but not tone. Despite Ofelia’s assertions that she isn’t afraid, as an audience we see her vulnerability as well as bravery in this scene. The toad is the polar opposite of Carroll’s frog footman, instead of being bumbling and comedic, the amphibian Ofelia encounters is selfish, covetous and gluttonous. Ofelia gains the key by tricking the animal through offering mud as food. In a way, this scene is a similar to but offers a far darker take on the scene in Spirited Away (2002) where Chihiro gives No-Face medicine. When Ofelia crawls back out, key in hand, she finds her “Alice” dress has been forever ruined by the trees.



Similarly for the second task Carrollian plot points are set up then subverted. Ofelia is given a piece of chalk by the fawn and the book of crossroads, which gives her details on the pale man’s realm (the illustration again references Carroll by the use of a young girl in an apron dress drawing a door).



 Ofelia follows the instructions and crawls through a door to the hall of the pale man’s realm, where she takes a key and has to put it in the correct lock. This situation recalls Alice’s trials in Wonderland’s hall of doors:

a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. 

Yet Ofelia once again is in a far more perilous situation. At the other end of the hall is the child eating pale man, and the cupboard she eventually opens reveals a sharp knife, resembling illustrations of the Vorpal sword from Carroll’s poem from Through the Looking-Glass, The Jabberwocky. This is later used to try and spill the blood of an innocent in the third task.



Overall Pan’s Labyrinth provides one of the finest examples of making a down the rabbit hole archetypal film for an older audience. By subverting and deconstructing the tropes audiences know, this film carves out a unique, if often dark path.

STRAY NOTES

• A musical version is apparently in development and will premiere soon.

ARCHIVE POST: Speaking Likenesses (Flora’s story) by Christina Rossetti

Please note: this post covers only 1 of the stories in Speaking Likenesses. Although the last is also cited to have Carroll-esque inflections, I only feel that Flora’s story is Carrollian enough to be talked about.

Can be read: Via archive.org as part of the public domain. 

Written by Dodgson’s contemporary, Rossetti, Speaking Likenesses is an anthology of several loosely linked stories as told by an aging mother to her three girls. I’m going to disagree with many studies of this novella and instead go with the view that Rossetti was not using these stories to criticize or mock Dodgson’s Alice tales. If anything, Rossetti’s stories also mock the inane moralism of children’s tales similarly to Carroll, albeit in a less restrained fashion. Evidence of this can be seen in the silly, trivial questions that the three sisters ask the mother, and the mother’s often overzealous use of moralising in her tales.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the 2nd tale of the three, Flora’s story. Flora’s character has several Alice-based personality features. Namely her unshakable sense of curiosity and her ability to keep her sense about her during her often surreal, and in this case, rather unpleasant encounters. Although the mother when telling the story points to Flora’s imperious nature when trying to control her friends after they fight at her birthday, the mother fails to understand that Flora’s temper giving way to anger over her friends would only be natural. It’s not like she hasn’t tried to stop her friends from fighting. Overall despite her flaws Flora is generally conveyed as a nicer child than the mother’s view paints her as. 

 Carroll’s novels often play upon the uncanny via the Duchess and Queen of Hearts in Wonderland, and the train passengers, sheep and mutton meal in Looking-Glass. But their vague uneasiness is not brought to the centre. Alice moves on, barely dwelling on each encounter. Even the Queen of Hearts is just a bit player of a larger narrative. In Rossetti’s likenesses, Flora may go through a door but she does not end up in a world of wonder by any sense. Through the door is a warped version of a birthday party, where each uncanny resident is downright horrendous towards Flora.




Although the curious mirrored walls and anthropomorphic chairs recall Carroll, they are only used as operators to deny Flora of any joy. A sort of inverse form of Carrollian writing then. 

Flora is denied food by the self-proclaimed Birthday Queen, and then subjected to having pins thrown at her as a party game. Although Carroll’s Alice may suffer threats of beheading or disappearing altogether, she is never really physically harmed. But Flora very much is.


And how much does Flora learn from her experience? Other than never to fall asleep in the garden ever again? Or never to go through any unusual doors? 

The moralistic mother tells us as readers it’s for her own good. That in the future, Flora will become a proper Victorian lady because of this dream. But this statement rings entirely false. And yes, that’s the point. 

In mocking the Mother character, Rossetti aims all her scorn at moralistic adults who enforce strict rules on children and pointless lessons for their supposed own good. 

Can't help but wonder if Rosetti was inspired by Carroll's Duchess. 

Everything has a moral, if only you can find it.

Indeed! 

ARCHIVE POST: PSA: ”Bengali literature’s Lewis Carroll” …Sukumar Ray

It was terribly hot. I lay in the shade of a tree, feeling quite limp. I had put down my handkerchief on the grass: I reached out for it to fan myself when suddenly it called out, ‘Miaow!’ Here was a pretty puzzle. I looked and found that it wasn’t a handkerchief any longer. It had become a plump ginger cat with bushy whiskers, staring at me in the boldest way. 

from HaJaBaRaLa (A topsy-turvy tale)

Born in Bengal, India in 1887, Saukmar Ray’s nonsense works would go on to shape the fabric on Bengali culture, being continually referenced and parodied. in many ways the Ray-Carroll comparison is apt, as both writers wrote fledgling works for family magazines. In the case of Ray, it was one that he and his brother Subinay Ray helped set up through their father’s publishing firm. The majority of Ray’s nonsense work was written for “Sandesh” over an 8 year period. The most famous of these works being the collection of satires/poems “Abol Tabol” and the Carrollian “HaJaBaRaLa (A topsy-turvy tale)“ in which a young child gets lost in a bizarre world after following a handkerchief which has turned into an impertinent cat. 

Despite his work being cultural currency in India, sadly essays and such in the western world seem to be lacking… which I find a little odd for someone whose work is considered an equivalent and equal to Carroll. 

Both Abol Tabol and Hajabarala have been translated into English by Oxford University Press.

Excerpts and a better overview here.

1987 Documentary here. 

ARCHIVE POST: A Review of: Gerald Barry’s Alice Opera (2016)

CAN BE HEARD: HERE (LIBRETTO HERE, YOU WILL NEED IT) 

This 2016 opera by Gerald Barry covers the majority of both Alice books (when I say majority I mean most of the major Wonderland scenes.. then the entirety of Looking-Glass from live flowers onwards) 

The title is Alice’s adventures Underground and its a total misnomer. Not only has it got nothing to do with Carroll’s manuscript original, as I’ve explained above it also adapts the majority of both novels. 

Its incredibly fast paced and as a result, hectic, surreal and very dreamlike. Unlike other versions there appears to be no transitions between scenes. So every scene starts and ends incredibly abruptly.

I like this approach a lot.

Barbra Hannigan plays the role of Alice and is actually really convincing as a seven and a half year old. The characterisation of Alice in this version is adorable, the bizarre singing style that Barry’s singers have to push themselves to really shows. Alice sounds squeaky and in spoken parts, earnestly curious. 

All the other characters of both books are split between 6 singers, Hilary Summers,  Allison Cook, Allan Clayton, Peter Tantsits, Mark Stone and Joshua Bloom. All match up to the enormously complex task admirably. 

The libretto is also a lot of fun, although at times its hard to hear what’s being sung. I’m very glad a typed out Libretto was available. It makes it easier to understand when you can follow along! 

The croquet match is a crazy cacophony of singers singing various scales and things in different languages to match Alice’s confusion over the game. The lobster Quadrille is sung by the entire group of singers in a distorted round. Jabberwocky is recited multiple times in different languages. Overall everything is incredibly inventive and quite possibly not like any opera you’ve ever heard before. 

ARCHIVE POST: Down the Rabbit Hole Project: The Cat Returns

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. 

PLEASE NOTE: THIS REVIEW IS REFERRING TO THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE VERSION WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES. AS SUCH SOME MINOR DETAILS AND NAMES MAY DIFFER.

Whilst the The Cat Returns (2002) never quite reaches the dizzying heights of Ghibli’s other riff on Carroll, Spirited Away (2001) it is a sweetly charming film, even if it is a smaller work from the famous anime studio.

Where the Cat Returns shines is in its simplicity. Essentially the plot is how normal teenager Haru gets stuck in the kingdom of cats, and the friends who help her get back home again.  it’s the down the Rabbit Hole trope at its base level, but it works marvellously.

Haru as a protagonist doesn’t have an awful lot of depth, and is probably the protagonist with the least personality I’ve looked at so far for this project, but then again she doesn’t need to really have one. As the main character Haru is ultimately mainly a vessel for the audience to project their reactions on to. 



The real meat of the film occurs in the kingdom of cats, specifically the court of the Cat king, whose displeasure and habit of savagery is clearly influenced by Carroll’s Queen of Hearts.

`I see!’ said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses. `Off with their heads!’ and the procession moved on, three of the soldiers remaining behind to execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran to Alice for protection.

 

In another Alice's adventures in Wonderland influenced aspect of this film, Haru frequently has problems of scale, when she is in the Cat office, she struggles to get through the door due to being too big for the room she is in and has to make do with tiny sized tea given to her by Baron. 

It is easy to compare this scene with this chapter from Alice's adventures in Wonderland: 



She went on growing, and growing, and very soon had to kneel down on the floor: in another minute there was not even room for this, and she tried the effect of lying down with one elbow against the door, and the other arm curled round her head. 

 Another scale problem occurs for Haru in the kingdom of cats, the cats are huge in comparison to the now minuscule Haru. On arriving in the kingdom the first thing she sees is her gluttonous cat friend Muta who appears to have grown to the size of a giant- but in fact she has just downsized. 





Similarly the Caterpillar towers above Alice when she grows too small:

She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar

 


 In keeping with various actual film adaptations of Carroll’s Alice, a climatic chase sequence happens in an unruly Monarch ’s garden labyrinth, although unlike 1951 Disney’s Alice, Haru manages to properly escape the world and her adventures haven’t all been imagined.




In another visual reference to Carroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, Haru follows Muta through the city streets to get to the realm of the cat office, akin to Alice following the White Rabbit.



Like the majority of protagonists in the films for this project I have looked at, Haru’s sense of self is at stake once she enters the unfamiliar world of the cat kingdom. Not just faced with the fate of marrying Prince Lune, Haru also experiences loss of self via metamorphosis. 

The more she warms to the kingdom, the more chance of turning fully into a cat she has. Central to this conflict is Baron and Haru’s friendship. It culminates in a moment which boarders on romance. Whilst dancing with him, Haru wonders for a second if being a cat forever wouldn’t be such a bad idea - until the Baron tells her to focus and not lose her true self.



Once back at home again Haru has a renewed sense of self, less clumsy and unsure. The link in her new self to her adventures is pointed out when she makes Baron’s tea for her mother on the next morning. This also conforms to the down the rabbit hole archetype of the protagonists adventures making them realize truths through experience.

Overall Ghibli’s the Cat Returns is a charming if flawed watch which has an intense feel-good factor. Ideal for a rainy afternoon!

ARCHIVE REVIEW OF: Adrian Mitchell’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass PART 2

NOTE: This review uses photos from Photostage and Zuleika Henry, complete with watermarks. Please note that I cannot remove the watermarks as these are private property, and the photos belong to the owners. No copywrite infringement is intended.

(EDIT: As of 2025, I can say, I've read other play adaptations of Alice and this is by FAR the best one. Hands down, nothing comes close. I'm not sure why I didn't love this 100 percent on first read or watch. You can take that 4 star I gave this up to a 5 now. No, it REALLY is that good. Here's the licencing link worldwide. Yes, you CAN perform this in any theatre environment you want!)

With many thanks to @silvesterbotticelli.

A SMALL INTRODUCTORY NOTE

This review is of a non-commercial recording of the 2001 cast which is held in a private collection.The Original cast has its own successes and failings, and there are many differences between this production and that which is described in the published script. I will address the issues of the published script in the review, and I will also judge this production on its own merits.

CHILD OF THE PURE UNCLOUDED BROW, WITH DREAMING EYES OF WONDER…

The prologue to act 2 opens in the same space the epilogue to act 1 left us in, Alice’s drawing-room. Lorina attempts to teach 6 year old Edith chess, but both get into an argument and Edith walks off. Alice is not interested in the game as she never seems to win and is more focused on talking with Kitty, the black kitten. Infuriated Lorina soon leaves, Afred Lord Tennyson book in hand. 

LOOKING GLASS WORLD

As the room goes dark, and Alice grows tired, she is drawn to the looking-Glass whilst the Company sing of magic. “Moonlight on the Mirror” is one of the best songs in the entire play, with Terry Davies and Steven Warbeck’s arrangements conveying a sense of wonderfulness. I actually can’t imagine what this song would sound like minus this arrangement…

Alice climbs through to Looking-Glass House which in this production is just a gigantic mirror on a mantelpiece. The chess piece scene rolls round quickly and Jabberwocky for some bizarre reason is recited by father William and Son. Who aren’t in this book. Which leads me to question why Mitchell as an adaptor made this choice. The garden of live flowers is also disappointing as it consists of one flower, Tiger-Lily. Why the others couldn’t be included is a mystery. 

Much better is the Red Queen, played by Liza Sadovy, who truly is the essence of all governesses! The running scene is done incredibly well and I cannot work out how it was done. Treadmill maybe?? Left alone Alice endures a strange train ride.. which ends too quickly. Paul Lenard, Mark McLean and Mitchell Morero all make fine train passengers and the scene is delightfully frantic, only to stop suddenly as in this version Alice reaches the end of the line and has to walk the rest of the way. The Gnat is also absent, as are the Looking-Glass insects.

Dum and Dee are however wonderfully obnoxious and are played with gusto by Jamie Golding and Adam Sims. Also this scene features one of the best theatrical versions of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” I’ve ever seen. It even incorporates Carroll’s rewritten lyrics for the first Alice stage adaptation! Think of the way it was portrayed in 1999 and you aren’t far off! 

Marilyn Cutts makes for an excellently eccentric White Queen, and a weird sheep. The published script puts the Cheshire Cat in the shop scene (I know. Why??) but this production thankfully removes this! 

I did not care much for Martyn Ellis’s Humpty Dumpty, he seemed to be using the same technique the Gryphon used in the Wonderland adaptation- screaming out the lines as loud as he could! The orchestration of “In Winter When the Fields are White.. “ is also an utter disappointment. You often can’t hear the lines! 

The White King was very unmemorable as played by John Condroy. I’m actually struggling to remember his performance as I write this… 

The Lion and the Unicorn was a fantastic great big set piece, with the Company cheering for either side. It is set up like a sort of boxing match, and Mark McLean's Lion has more than a hint of a certain London boxer in his characterisation. If it is what the director was going for, its a little bit odd as it has no relation to the Victorian era. The Unicorn is extremely Scottish, with a very thick accent. The Company song “The Lion and the Unicorn” is an ensemble piece, with all including Alice joining in. Its a fun but too short number.

Things take a more delicate and melancholic tone after the White Knight (played by the same actor who played Dodgson) rescues Alice from the Red Knight (bizarrely this production has him played by the same actor who played Duckworth) Although there are plenty of laughs in this scene, Daniel Flynn’s White Knight plays up the melancholy. This reaches its peak in a beautiful and funny take on “A sitting On A Gate”. One of the few times this show takes a more specious pause for breath.

“Welcome Queen Alice” is sung in a wonderful arrangement by the Company as the White Rabbit (yes, I know) gives Alice her chess crown. In this version there is no proper feast to speak of (the food scene doesn't occur) instead Alice climbs up a gigantic chess piece chair to sit alongside the Red and White Queens. The official Queen examination scene is delightfully funny but feels too rushed. That’s because the White Queen announces “Something is going to happen!” and it does. The Jabberwock descends on to the crowd, scattering everyone. As soon as everyone vanishes, Alice sees the looking glass and passes through. 

Awakening at home on the hearthrug in the drawing-room with the Black Kitten and Snowdrop in her hands, Alice ponders the meaning of her dream. Was it hers or the Red King’s?

If I were to be brutally honest, I much prefer Carroll’s feast scene to this. It doesn’t really work as a denouement, I also feel like there was no threat to the Jabberwock because as an audience we barely see it (this production only shows its red eyes!) As a result, Alice’s awakening does not feel significant or pronounced the way it is in the book. It just.. kind of happens. I will give this version immense credit for actually showing us Alice pondering the Red King dream question at the end. Many versions leave this out. 

A BOAT BENEATH A SUNNY SKY…

Back on the riverbank Dodgson finishes his tales (yes this version implies he told both stories in one day. Poetic licence!) Dodgson, the Liddells and Duckworth row home, but Alice Liddell feels affected by what she has heard. Before they row off, she asks Mr Dodgson to “write down Alice’s adventures”. 

As they row off singing a reprise of “All in the Golden Afternoon…”, fictional Alice stands onstage and seems to hear echoes from her adventures in Wonderland and Looking-Glass World. The lights begin to fade, until all we can see is her.

CONCLUSION

Overall I found this 2001 recording 100 times better than the published script. I give this particular staging a 4 out of 5, with an added note to be cautious with the published script, as it leaves plenty to be desired. 

No doubt the best thing about this adaptation was Katherine Heath’s performances as Alice Liddell and “Alice”. Heath made an eager Alice Liddell and an intelligent, quiet and polite “Alice”. This production also has stellar set design and a formidable cast, some playing up to 4 parts! 

Although some of the scenes are rushed, it flows much better than the published script and this recording has my highest recommendation if you wish to see a dramatisation of both books in full!