A scribbly biro Lewis Carroll

Art by Rapunzette

`Who are YOU?’ said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, `I—I hardly know, sir, just at present— at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.’

(Photo is by an unknown source.) 

Theatre Archives and curiosity....

(Photo by Culture24)

Recently with work I visited the utterly fantastic national theatre archive in London. This was not Carroll related and is tied to a theatre project that I work at as a day job (when I'm not studying for university) 

But since there are Carroll related items in the archive, I thought I'd post a small run down of what is there, just in case any research friends go to London at any point and want to know there time is not wasted in searching:

• You have to specify what materials you want via the catalogue before you make the appointment. Make sure to note down numbers in the digital catalogue when planning a visit! 

• I've said this before: the real treasure in this archive is a extremely early script for the Albarn/Norris/Buffini flop Wonder.land. This script dates from 2014. I can't find the interview specifically, but I'm sure in the early promotional period one of the creators noted the early drafts were much darker than the finished show. Does this 2014 script reflect this??

• Wonder.land is on video recording in the archive too.

• A dubious thing but nevertheless: Christopher Hampton's early 1990s adaptation/outdated biography thing Alice's adventures Underground is in the archive. This includes a video. I hope someone else investigates this one. There's only so much pre Karoline Leach "biography" interludes that I can take. 

The archive managers are lovely people and whilst the building is small (with traffic noise outside barely shielded) its a decent enough research space. 

There's also free programmes available for anyone to take, which include quite big names. If you love collecting programmes, this is for you. 

Photocollage: The films of Through the Looking Glass (EyeMuseum, Amsterdam, 2019)

I should have really done this when it was still running but here's a photomontage collage of all the Alice inspired films that were shown at FilmEyeMuseum's Through the Looking Glass film festival last year.

Similarly to ACMI's Alice is Everywhere festival from 2018, this festival's inspired by Carroll films are almost exclusively aimed at adults, showing the inspiration to mature works that carroll's books have.

EyeFilm Museum's choices were fascinatingly provocative, and not at all "standard" for this kind of film festival. 

The films were:

• The Wizard of Oz (1939)

• Che (1972)  *aside: I have problems with this being included. More on this when the time comes*

• Wild at Heart (1990)

• The Matrix (1999)

• Tideland (2006)

As always I aim to cover these in future July "Down the rabbit hole project" essays!