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A Contemporary Midsummer Night's Dream |
Chapter 2 of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass A Performance Art Piece by Jack Bowman |
21st Century Unconventional Theater |
ALICE AND THE RED QUEEN IN THE GARDEN OF RANDOM DELIGHTS
The story line is an old man reading the second chapter of Through the Looking Glass and the thoughts he has as he reads it. He sees Alice on her quest through life. There are many dangers she encounters. Among them are the Molesting Train Conductor, The Aggressive Humpty Dumpty, and yes so many dumb people such as Twiddledee and Tweedledum. The most dangerous is the Reaper boatman because he is trying to get her to give up before the journey is complete by trying to get her to pay the Reaper boatman on the river Styx . She also encounters the Brave and wise knight that will lead her through the forest of confusion. At the end of her journey she also becomes a queen. The red queen is her femininity that is guiding her through life and through the random encounters that life has not prepared her for. The characters on the chess squares are expected because she was prepared for them but the random encounters between the squares, or what could be called the cracks in the sidewalk, she is not prepared for. Each has the potential to trip up Alice on her journey. Her quest is to get to the 8th square on the chessboard so she can be a queen.
Alice's journey is everyone's spiritual journey through life. We all encounter those that are trying to trip us up and the environment is always our guide. The spiritual journey also contains bliss as Alice becomes a Queen herself. The characters in the performance are made to be colorful characters or what we may say exaggerated characters. There are additional characters. One is the Flower Girl that is always preaching peace and goodness. One is the old scholar that is always trying to decipher the journey and the random. The audience is all the people that randomly influence Alice during her journey. The documentary photographers are recording Alice's journey and audience actions. There is also an audience "plant" that is not listed because he/she is a secret character that has predetermined acts that influence Alice and the audience.
| This is a document of the performance as it
was done. It kept the true spirit of performance by not being rehearsed and
all of the performers never being together until the performance night.
Since this performance itself was about ordered instructions and interaction
with the environment it was important that it remained TRUE performance art
instead of theater. To better understand what happened you should read the script below. The residual noise hides much of the verbal interaction plus the documentary videographer could not get to all the performers. There were a total of eleven performers and only two started out on stage and only one remained on stage by the end.
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The performance starts with the old man reading Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 2. The red queen is on stage and is in front of a table with a chess board with all the major players on it (except her - the Red Queen). Alice is out of sight and enters (through the looking glass) when the performance starts. The characters are lined up in the order defined by Lewis Carroll in one of four ways. (1) They could be lined up in the middle of the audience going from near stage to end of audience. (2) They could be lined up in front of the stage going left to right. (3) They could be lined up in back of the audience going from let to right. (4) They could be randomly dispersed throughout the audience.
The chess piece (player) nearest to the stage is "Mister the Molester". The next one back is "Tommy Tweedle and Terry Dee". The next back the is "Boatman". Next back is "Sammy the Sumo". The next back is the "Knight".
The Old Man reads , "I SHOULD see the garden far better," said Alice to herself, "if I could get to the top of that hill: and here's a path that leads straight to it -- at least; no, it doesn't do that" ---- (after going a few yards along the path, and turning several sharp corners), "but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It's more like a corkscrew than a path! Well, this turn goes to the hill, I suppose ---- no, it doesn't! This goes straight back to the house! Well then, I'll try it the other way."
And so she did: wandering up and down and trying turn after turn, but always coming back to the house, do what she would. Indeed, once, when she turned a corner rather more quickly than usual, she ran against it before she could stop herself. "
The Old Man rings a cow bell and the performers start moving.
The Red Queen looks at her watch.
The Red Queen says, "Alice enters the garden through the Mirror and so begins her adventure in the Garden of Random Delights. She goes on to the third square where she has to catch a train."
Alice enters from the side or back of the audience. She goes up to "Mister the Molester" and ask him if he has her train ticket? He responses, "I have a cherry sucker for you." "I will give it to you if you can fasten my belt for me" as he points to his untied belt, "I hurt my hand and can’t fasten it."
Alice replies, "I can't fasten belts either". Mister the Molester replies, "Well here, will you take the Cherry sucker anyway."
Alice says, "No. I don't like cherries. They taste too much like the cough medicine that was squirted down my throat and gagged me.. I think I will just get on the train and continue my journey"
The old man rings the bell and "The Red Queen" removes "Mister the Molester" from the chess board.
The "Red Queen" reads from her study card and says "The fourth square Alice encounters Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum"
As Alice continues her journey she straightens her clothes and says, "Mister the Molester was really handy. He sat beside me all the way so I wouldn't be scared of the train.
"Mister Molester" goes into the audience and gives suckers to females in the audience. If they take one he will grab their hand with his other hand and start moving it up their forearm. If they don't smack him or pull it away he will say, "I will see YOU later" and go to another audience member.
Next Alice encounters "Tommy Tweedle and Terry Dee" They immediately start telling jokes and laughing loudly. Alice comments that "These are the dumbest people that I have ever met."
Tommy says to Alice, "How far is up?"
Alice replies, "I don't think up is a distance"
Terry points up and says, "That far." And both Tommy and Terry start laughing loudly.
The old man rings the bell and the Red Queen removes Tommy Tweedle and Terry Dee from the chess board.
The "Red Queen" reads her card and says, "In the fifth square Alice has to cross the water."
Tommy Tweedle and Terry Dee go into the audience and starts telling jokes to the audience members and laughing loudly.
Alice finds the boatman and says, "Will you take me across the water?" He replies "Yes but you have to pay." Alice says, "that is OK I will pay you when you get me to the other side." The boatman says, "We are halfway across. You have to pay me now." Alice refuses and says "I will pay you when my journey to the other side is complete."
The old man rings the bell and the Red Queen removes the Boatman from the chess board.
The "Red Queen" reads from her study card and says, "On the sixth square Alice will encounter Sammy Sumo with his Humpty Dumpty shape."
The Boatman goes into the audience and starts asking people to pay up.
Alice encounters Sammy Sumo (there is no Sammy Sumo for the Circus Sideshow 2008, Dayton Ohio performance because he is a difficult character to find. Instead He "the aggressor" is hiding in the audience and Alice goes into the audience looking for him.) Just then the Red Queen yells from the stage "DON'T SAY ANYTHING TO HIM". The "Red Queen" says, "Speak in French".
Alice says goes up to three different audience members and ask each one, "Que Sera, Sera" ( Whatever Will Be, Will Be ).
The old man rings the bell and the Red Queen removes him from the chess board.
At this time (after the red queen removes Sammy Sumo from the chess board) she leaves the stage and moves toward Alice
Alice moves on to the Knight. She says "O wise and brave one will you show me the way?" The Knight takes Alice's hand and leads her a few feet away. The Red Queen meets her and they hold hands and kiss each other.
There is a fluttering noise above the audience's head. It is a flying mechanical dragon fly. Both Alice and the Red Queen look up and point toward the flying insect.
Chaos occurs in the audience.
The old man rings the bell and the performance ends.
ADDENDUM
THE SECRET PERFORMANCES: Performance elements were not listed on this page because if anyone read them then the shock value would have been lost. They were grouped at the end to provide the Chaos. There was an audience plant that was to scream and run around, away from the Molester. The Molester missed his cue and this didn't happen. There were two performers from the Miami County Ohio 911 Truth group that were to protest loudly at the cue. They did and you can hear them on the video document. They also threw paper into the air. The Reaper Boatman was to fire a blank gun into the air at the cue (the cue for all of this was when Alice and The Red Queen kissed). The old man was to fly the radio controlled insect from the stage and the Reaper Boatman was to aim toward it. After practice it was decided that the RC insect had only a one in three chance of working so it was dropped. It was replaced by the old man also shooting a blank gun. The two twins, Tommy Tweedle and Terry Dee, would fight each other after the cue. This is seen on the video document.