Alice in Nightmareland

Alice in Nightmareland

Recommended age group:

Students of Third and Fourth of the ESO, Level 4

Characters:

Narrator, Alice 1, Alice 2, Alice 3, Alice 4, Alice 5, Alice 6, Lewis Carroll, Rabbit, Thing One and Thing Two, Caterpillar, Hare and Mad Hatter, Card 1, Card 2, Queen.

Synopsis:

This is a free version of Alice in Wonderland. When the story is about to begin, more than one Alice appear in the scene. They start to quarrel because all of them consider themselves the real Alice. Lewis Carroll tries to calm them down saying this is only a nightmare and suggests that each Alice stars one scene. Thus organised, the real story begins: Alice is in a very strange land, meeting all kinds of strange characters who seem useless in helping her to go back to her real world. In the end she meets a Queen who is threatening with chopping somebody´s head off. They all end up playing a football match.

Characters objectives:

Alice: In this story there are 6 girls who claim to be Alice. Our Alices are beautiful teenagers and they wear similar dresses. Each one of the Alices wants to go back to her home, but at the same time she feels curious about this new world .

Lewis Carroll: He´s a middle- aged gentleman who is wearing an elegant suit and stammers a little bit. He wants to organize the different Alices so that his story can be performed.

The Rabbit: He is a very nervous creature with enormous ears. He is in a hurry because  he wants to get to the Queen as soon as possible so that she does not get mad..

Thing One and Thing Two: They are a set of twins, they look quite similar, short and very fat, and wear bright coloured clothes and funny hats. They only want to have fun and to tease Alice with their nonsensical remarks.

The Caterpillar: He is a huge green and blue insect who always carries a smoking pipe. His movements are very slow. He only wants to smoke and to pick on Alice.

The Hare and the Mad Hatter: They are a very peculiar couple. Their clothes are quite eccentric, and they want to celebrate someone´s no-birthday

Card 1 and Card 2: They are two human size poker cards. They are trying to paint roses red just to please the Queen.

The Queen: She is quite short and fat, she´s wearing a red long dress and has an enormous crown. She wants to show that she´s the ruler and continually threatens to chop somebody´s head off.

Narrator: He is the one in charge of calling Mr. Carroll every time that a new Alice is needed. We could say that his role is helping Mr. Carroll.

Scenes:

Scene one:

The narrator is about to introduce the play when he realises that there are five Alices on the scene. They start quarrelling because they all claim they are Alice. The narrator calls Lewis Carroll, who organises them: each one will be the star of one scene.

Scene two: Alice 1 meets the Rabbit in the forest and follows him, trying to get his help. The rabbit hardly listens to Alice, he just wants to get to the Queen as soon as possible so that she does not get mad.

Scene three: In other part of the forest Alice 2 meets Thing One and Thing Two and tries to have a decent conversation with them, what turns out to be impossible. Angry, she leaves.

Scene four: Alice 3 meets the Caterpillar and gets mad when she sees that he´s smoking, so she starts to tell him off and he teases her. Angry again, she follows her way.

Scene five: Alice 4 meets a cat, who gives her some directions and tells her that the Queen will play a football match that day.

Scene six: Alice 5 comes across The Mad Hatter and the Hare in a beautiful garden. They are singing “Happy no-birthday to you” and they are drinking and dancing at the same time. They invite Alice to have a cup of tea. Unable to get any information from them, Alice leaves.

Scene seven: In a garden full of roses Alice 6 sees two cards who are painting all the white roses red. They explain to her that they are following the Queen´s orders. Suddenly, the Queen herself comes, and she is determined to chop someone´s head off. In order to take that idea from her head, the cards propose to play a football match.

Scene eight: All the characters of the play, including the narrator, Lewis Carol and all the Alices, play a football match together.

Extra Information:

I have decided to include so many Alices in my story because, in this way, each of the scenes can be rehearsed separately in small groups, all of them are independent. Controlling the class while students rehearse is going to be much easier in this way, and besides, we avoid putting all the responsibility of the main character of the play in only one student.