Alice in Wonderland
When Andre Gregory’s Manhattan Project adapted the story for the stage, as Alice in Wonderland, these threats, particularly the sexual threat, came to the fore. Their Alice is an inmate of an insane asylum of the Marat/Sade-One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest variety, and her trip to Wonderland a psychotic episode acted out by supercilious doctors, power-mad nurses, sociopathic orderlies, and fellow inmates. Making Alice crazy is one way to approach the central dramatic problem of the story: a main character who doesn’t grow or change or take charge of her own fate but simply awakens to find that her adventures were just a dream. The company goes on to present her ultimate return to the real world as death.
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, like many other aspects of childhood, is actually very serious. Kudos to Blindfaith for reminding us of that simple fact.
