Theatre
10
By Miguel Garcia-Fuentes
plain
2020-11-25T12:01:37-08:00
Adapting any piece of prose for the stage is difficult, which is especially true for Alice because of its immense popularity. The stage adaptation must win over a massive amount of people who hold the books close to their hearts. Playwrights are often in a challenging position because of the number of obstacles. They must consider how the stage uses language versus how a novel does: “‘all literature is made up of words, but plays are made up of spoken words. While all literature may be read aloud, plays are written to be read aloud.’ In writing for the stage, the playwright must always keep this idea in mind,” (Perry 1313). Also, a stage production “is not the cumulative result of one man’s labor like the novel. Playwright, director, actor, designer, and technicians all impart their ideas in its interpretative process,” (Perry 1314). Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus certainly had an up-hill battle with their stage adaptation in 1947.
Alice in Wonderland (1947) took inspiration from both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and her own 1932 theatre adaptation. This adaptation is Gallienne’s return to Broadway, and as The New York Times explained, “the new production will be faithful to the old, which, in turn, was faithful to Lewis Carroll and the original John Tenniel drawings,” (Corry). Along with co-writing the script, she starred as the White Queen as she did in the 1932 production. Because of her experience in theatre and with Alice, Gallienne had less to worry about than a first-time playwright: she already knew about the obstacles and felt confident enough to dive back in again, which paid off. The critics loved the play. Some called it “beautiful nonsense” and “the strangest, funniest” story “for adults who were once children.”
On the right is the script for the 1947 adaptation, and while the years have not been kind to it, the cover is made of a higher-quality material, showing that people wanted to protect the script, which they succeeded in doing as the actual pages are free of marks and stains.Further Reading
Rua, Colleen. "Navigating Neverland and Wonderland: Audience as Spect-Character." Theatre History Studies, vol. 38, 2019, pp. 149-165,257. ProQuest.
Another stage adaptation of Alice, but this one focuses on the journey of a director who attempted to make the audience a character within the play.
Hutcheon, Linda. “Chapter 2: What? (Forms).” A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routlegde. 2006. Web.
More information on what adaptors must consider and the differences between mediums.
Chua, Ke Ni. "Alice in Wonderland as a precursor to the theatre of the absurd." (2011).
This piece explores the theme of absurdity in the two original books and how it led to the Theatre of the Absurd movement.
