Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Introduction

In 1986, Barming C.P. School's "4th Year" play was Alice in Wonderland.  I am attempting to document what I can of this.  Mrs. Grice, the director, has kindly provided an audio tape of the backing tracks and a copy of the video.  I have my original song sheet and have transcribed the words.

Please help by posting more information about the cast, and let me know if you have further pictures etc.

David

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Behind the scenes

Director:	Mrs. Jean Grice
Stage Manager:	Maria Jefferis
Lighting:	David Wells

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Cast

(alphabetical by character name):

Alice:	Kate Jaggers
Alice's sister:	Lindsey Reid-Marr
Alice grown up:	Maria Jefferis
Caterpillar:	Alan Langworthy
Card 1:	Christopher Ely
Card 2:	Rachel Carter
Card 3:	Mark Edwards
Cheshire Cat:	Susan Mills
Cook:	Katherine Perry
Dormouse:	Judith Virjee
Duchess:	Claire Thompson
Executioner:	Matthew Bartlett
Fish footman:	Lindsey Reid-Marr
Frog footman:	Catherine Finnis
Gryphon:	Nicholas Haley
King of Hearts:	David Bond
Knave of Hearts:	Daniel Smith
Mad Hatter:	Robert Peerless
March Hare:	Neil Hamblin
Mock Turtle:	David Wells
Narrator (Mole):	Peter Deppe
Pat the Gardener:	Robert Cowell
Queen of Hearts:	Margaret Earl
White Rabbit:	Karen Boyce
Warder 1:	James Golding
Warder 2:	Ian Pearce
Warder 3:	Natasha Sheikh
Warder 4:	Lynsey McCormick
Animals, Jury, Courtiers etc:	Sarah Oakley, Caroline Franks, Alyson Burton, Calre Brownson, Stuart Mace, Sarah Longhurst, Robert Cowell, Christopher Ely, Karen Hooper, Rachel Carter, Emma Reevis, Catherine Finnis, Daniel Neeves, Natasha Sheikh, Lynsey McCormick

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Music

Music and lyrics by Mike Smith

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Song sheet

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Lyrics

It's late, it's late

It's late, it's late,

The Queen will never wait,

For wasting time she thinks a crime,

I'll meet a shocking fate.

My head, my head,

The Queen will have my head,

Unless I race to reach my place, 

The Queen will have my head,

Rush on, rush on,

The time is getting on,

I'll bound and hop and never stop,

Until the danger's gone.

It's late, it's late,

The Queen will never wait,

For wasting time she thinks a crime,

I'll meet a shocking fate.

Who are you, miss?

I really think it's rather strange,

To meet a talking rabbit,

Who wears white gloves upon his paws,

A most peculiar habit

But here inside the rabbit's house,

The walls close in on me,

Six times my normal size I've grown,

It really does astound me.

The cakes, the cakes, my only chance,

To eat them I must try,

I'm shrinking fast, oh now at last,

This little girl will fly.

I ran and ran into the wood,

And nestled 'neath some flowers,

Oh dear, now I just want to grow,

The grass around me towers.

I stretched up high upon tip-toe and reached up from the ground,

A caterpillar, large and blue,

Astride a mushroom found.

Surrounded there in smokey haze,

He took no slightest note,

Until at last from sleepy gaze,

He asked me, who are you, Miss,

He asked me, who are you, Miss.

Which side now

Please help me sir for I'm afraid,

I can't to you explain,

Why I from inches high grow tall,

And then shrink back again.

So strange my dear, but tell me this,

What size you wish to be,

The answer really I can tell,

Is here right under me.

One side will make you shorter,

One side will make you tall,

One side of what please tell me sir,

I'm tired of being so small.

The mushroom ma'am, the mushroom,

Just nibble it and see,

For up or down choose left or right,

It's plain as plain can be.

We're mad down here

We're mad down here, oh yes we are,

Some things we can't deny,

It's not the same up top I've heard,

For there you have to try,

To get things right or left or up or down or in or out,

But us down here, oh yes.

They're all mad as Hatters, yes, they're totally insane,

It helps you see if they're to play the game,

Oh yes they're all mad as Hatters, yes they're totally insane,

They have to be, you see, to play the game.

The Duchess she's quite crazy, for

As anyone can hear

The babe she cradles in her arms,

A pig it is I fear.

That cook, that cook, that crazy cook,

She hurls her pans around our heads with glee, and yes,

They're all mad as Hatters, yes, they're totally ..........

Now look at me, I am insane,

I'll prove it to you now.

For when I'm mad my tail I wag,

And when I'm pleased I growl.

For up down here is down up there and right is wrong or left,

Do you believe, that yes,

They're all mad as Hatters, yes, they're totally ..........

The Queen of Hearts is quite beyond,

For nearly every day,

Off with their heads, she screams, if

Anyone gets in her way.

The King, poor man, he follows whilst the Knave and gardeners

For their lives do pray, oh yes,

They're all mad as Hatters, yes, they're totally insane ...

Tea for three

Seeing's believing, or so people tell me,

The Hare and the Hatter, are seated for tea,

A Dormouse between them, asleep, or just resting,

I'll join them, I'm hungry, there's room here for me.

Tea for three, and three for tea,

No room for four, no room,

Not four for tea, just room for three,

No room for four, no room.

I say what I mean, I mean what I say,

What day of the month does your watch say?

That butter's made it two days wrong,

Has Time stood still, where has it gone?

Time for tea, it's half past three,

Or is it four past noon?

Come pour the tea, but just for three,

For four there is no room.

More tea my dear? please have some more,

I can't have more, I've not had any,

I think you mean, not less my dear,

Oh now the cups are empty.

Round and round let's move along,

For then we'll have some tea,

Let's all move on, one place move on,

It's logical you see.

When drawing in a treacle well,

The rules, the rules, are quite amazing,

For with an M thing have to start,

It really is confusing.

Why with an M? why not indeed,

To leave here would be kind,

Her magic mushroom may well mend,

Her madly muddled mind,

All in a line

All in a line, we're doing fine,

Pretty flamingoes all swinging in time,

Beautiful day, it's going my way,

The hedgehogs are rolling all our cares away.

We all must play, I hear her say,

Chaotic confusion's the rule if the day,

Off with his head, living in dread,

The axe it is gleaming, the gardeners have fled.

Croquet, you see, is hardly for me,

My own pink flamingo has flown up a tree,

We must join in, the Queen though must win,

To beat her at croquet is surely a sin.

Try as we may, we cannot now play,

Flamingoes and hedgehogs are running away,

Oh where have they gone, that didn't last long,

So we'll leave you humming the tune of this song.

La, la, lala, la, la, lala, ..........

Reeling writhing

My story I'll relate to you, though you may find confusing,

About my days in school I'll tell, but please, no interrupting,

A turtle was our teacher there, we knew of him as tortoise,

The reason it can only be, because of things he taught us.

For Reeling, Writhing were the first,

And them came some Ambition,

All part of learning 'rithmatic,

Distraction and Derision.

And then there was the Mystery, both ancient, and yes, modern,

That taught us turtles in the sea, of things we'd quite forgotten,

An eel, he taught us how to drawl, and stretch and faint in coils,

A crab, he taught, Laughter and Grief, my how he made us toil.

For Reeling, Writhing, .........

The lessons were so called because, they gradually shortened,

From ten, to nine, to eight and down, the hours we worked they lessened,

A holiday, eleven days on? now that's a fair deduction,

And on the twelfth? that's quite enough, I said, no interruption.

For Reeling, Writhing, .........

Silence in court

Silence in Court

Silence in Court

Be upstanding, for the King and Queen of Hearts,

In the trial of the Knave who stole the tarts,

Silence in Court

Consider your verdict, said the King to the Jury,

Not yet, said the Rabbit, there's much more to see,

First witness, first witness, the Hatter came running,

With fresh bread and butter and drinking some tea.

You ought to have finished your party you Hatter,

You've had many days now, when did you take tea,

Three dates he did offer, the Jury took notice,

Two shillings and sixpence the verdict must be,

Call Alice, call Alice, repeated the Rabbit,

Her name it did echo around and around,

In getting up quickly, the Jury she'd toppled,

Live goldfish lay scattered about on the ground,

Oh I beg your pardon, oh do please allow me

To help you all back to your places again,

Eleven reassembled without much commotion,

The Lizard, head downwards was struggling in vain,

So come now young Alice, please tell us your story,

You say you know nothing, no, nothing at all,

Important take note now, important I tell you,

Why that makes her guilty, the axe it must fall.

Silence in Court

Silence in Court

Unimportant, is surely what you mean,

Ah, quite so Mr Rabbit, tell the Queen,

Silence in Court

The King he cried, Silence, and read from his rulebook,

All persons a mile high, please leave the Court,

A mile high? who me sir? why no sir, I'm staying,

The Queen said, two miles high! the poor King was fraught,

Move evidence!! surely we've had quite enough now,

For evidence merely confuses the truth,

He's guilty, the Queen shouts, the Rabbit quite quickly

Read through the non-sensical verses of proof.

You see, said the King, they have not one meaning,

That saves us the trouble of trying to find

The truth of the matter, for which we are searching,

There is none, that's final, I've made up my mind.

So now that I've cleverly solved that small problem,

Come Jury, consider your verdict, be clear,

No verdict, just sentence, the Queen interrupted,

That's nonsense, said Alice, you're all mad down here.

You're all mad, do you hear me, you're crazy, I tell you,

No verdict, just sentence? that is what I said,

Her head off!! yes quickly, she surely is guilty,

They're crazy, they must be, they'll not have my head,

Silence in Court

Silence in Court

She is guilty, surely guilty, we all say,

Get the axe cut her head off no delay
Silence in Court

Who cares for you?

You're nothing!!!

Nothing but a pack of cards!!!

Leave room for dreams

When as a child this world I left,

To lands beyond my mind,

Such joy, such freedom, found each day,

That now a mother how I pray,

These worlds and more, my child will see,

For dreams, showed more than hope,

I found within, new worlds,

New worlds of fantasy,

Leave room, leave room for dreams to play,

Find time, my child, to seek,

Leave room, leave room for dreams to find,

New worlds of fantasy.

As I grew up to greet the world,

It had no time for dreams,

No joy or freedom could I find,

To match the worlds within my mind,

Awake once more, inside of me,

Imagination found

The means to let me see,

My worlds of fantasy.

Leave room, leave room ..........

I hope the day will never come,

When truth, is all we seek,

For joy and freedom you will find,

When life and dreams, the two you bind,

Through my child's eyes a truth I see,

Reflected in her dreams,

Please life, do not destroy,

Her worlds of fantasy.

Leave room, leave room ..........