Home > THEATRE > Alice vs. Wonderland based on stories by Lewis Carroll, remixed by Brandon Shea

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Alice vs. Wonderland based on stories by Lewis Carroll, remixed by Brandon Shea

Presented by American Repertory Theater at Loeb Drama Center

September 18-October 9, 2010

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This fantastical update of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass seamlessly blends the lyrical whimsy of Alice with pop culture, high-octane physical theater, and the dynamic vision of acclaimed Hungarian director János Szász. The result is a fresh, funny, and emotional remix of Carroll's classic coming-of-age tale. Adapter Brendan Shea explains his work: “The Alice of my generation is older than Lewis Carroll’s— she’s a teenager, facing the terrors of adulthood. A teenage Alice today dreams differently than Carroll’s seven-year-old Victorian girl; her Wonderland needed remixing. In my version, it’s Lewis Carroll meets Lady Gaga — the basic structure of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland remains, through the series of encounters between Alice and a gallery of Wonderland oddballs. Carroll punctuates each episode with a poem, a satirical revision of a Victorian nursery rhyme; the poems mock popular verses that nannies used to teach morals. But Carroll’s satire would fall flat with a modern audience; we don’t recognize his send-up of Victorian hypocrisy. But juxtaposing Alice with pop culture speaks the modern lingo. From the book, the Disney cartoon, or the Burton film we have a notion of who Alice is; we also have an inherent association with pop culture — today’s nursery rhymes are not transmitted by nanny but by TV, radio, or Youtube. The collision between pop culture and these canonical storybook characters will spark the same smile of pleasure as Carroll’s mash-up of pious nursery rhymes. This is why I call Alice vs. Wonderland not an adaptation, but a remix.”