Alice in Wonderland at Guildford

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - play

We went to a staging of this story in Guildford which was quite interesting. We were welcomed at St Mary's Church, where an introduction from the vicar (Charles Dodgson, alias Lewis Carroll) started a service, which was interrupted by the White Rabbit. Alice was in the audience and got up to take part. She then fell down the rabbit hole in front of the congregation and after she landed, the "choir" area was opened up to show the hall with the doors. Alice drank "Drink Me" and found that she could get  through the little door (it had become a big door) and she took the whole audience through the door with her, through a dark tunnel with fairy lights, and in a dressed up vestibule on the other side, we all met the fruitily-voiced caterpillar, sitting on the mushroom. We then met the White Rabbit again and we were taken on a short walk to the next venue (Guildford museum), where we saw the Cook and the Duchess arguing about the soup, we heard a recording of the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon, we helped the playing cards to paint the roses red, and we saw a puppet show of the Cheshire Cat. We could take all these scenes in any order; the audience drifted around the small rooms of  the venue. Finally, there was a scene with the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, who improvised very amusingly with single members of the audience, who could join in the tea party, but they had to keep getting up and moving around the table. It was all very uproarious and mad. We then accompanied the cards to the grounds of Guildford castle where poor Alice tried to play croquet with the flamingos. Then we went up the stairs to the medieval prison which is in the Castle keep and were in the audience for the trial of the Knave of Hearts. The King and Queen had very definite characters - he so weak and confused, she so assured and so stupid and then - not very dramatically - it all came to an end.

The company somehow perform this show THREE times a night, but they must surely have two Alices and two White Rabbits, and although the cast in the Museum can stay there and repeat their parts 3 times for different audiences, how exhausted they must be by the end!

And so we went inside three historic buildings in Guildford that we had not been into before. The Castle is a particularly interesting place originally built by the Normans soon after the conquest. It would be hard to find a more suitable venue for the Trial scene than that square brick and whitewash room with barred windows.

inside the keep

Charles Dodgson lived in Guildford from time to time, after Alice was published. He bought a large house there for his six unmarried sisters.

In 1832 Charles Dodgson was born in Cheshire. In 1846 he was enrolled at Rugby School (and he hated his three years there). I expect he missed his eleven younger brothers and sisters. He went to Oxford to study classics and mathematics in about 1852, when he was 20. Henry Liddell became the Dean of Christ College, where Rev Dodgson rose fast through the academic ranks, and the two men shared an interest in photography. Dodgson enjoyed taking the pictures of the Liddell family excursions and parties, and it was during one such excursion that Dodgson, accompanied by his friend Revd Duckworth, created the story of Wonderland.

 It was 4th July, 1862, and they had taken the three Liddell girls (sank 'eaven for Liddell girls) for a boating trip on the Thames. Alice (aged 10) had clearly become Dodgson's favourite and to pass the time, he made up the story of Alice falling down the rabbit hole. She then asked him to write it down.

Dodgson himself admitted in an essay in 1887 that "to please a child I loved (I don't remember any other motive) I printed in manuscript, and illustrated in my own crude designs ... the book which I have just had published."

Dodgson found Guildford suitable for his family. "It was the sort of town one retired to: the Dodgsons had many friends who had been army and navy officers, diplomats and colonial men, as well as local professional men. The first dinner party Dodgson went to was given by the headmaster of the Royal Grammar School. He quickly made friends and had many jolly gatherings with them - picnics, dinner parties, concerts, croquet, etc. He was keen on professional theatre and on amateur dramatics. He loved long walks, on his own or with a friend. He preached very seldom - eleven sermons over ten years. He spent many weekend and holidays at Guildford and was there when he became ill and died suddenly in January 1898."

Dodgson was rather attractive

Alice was interesting to photograph - here she's a beggar maid

But in this picture, also taken by Dodgson if I'm to believe the internet, she is eighteen, and looks very dreary.,

Clearly, being a young woman in Victorian England wasn't much fun if you weren't particularly interested in something that fired you up - but poor Alice! There isn't a shred of the chirpy little girl she was. I am disturbed to see this kind of hopelessness in a young person.

People often wonder what went on between the young man and his little girl friend, which seems from our point of view such an inappropriate relationship. I saw a factual programme on this recently in which it noted that several pages were cut from a diary - Dodgson's I seem to remember - and that the Liddells fell out with him. Was it because of inappropriate behaviour with Alice? The thing is, we can't know, only speculate. But one would like to know the reason for the expression on this face.

Here is a link to a website which examines Alice in Wonderland from all angles: very interesting