Dear patron,
I fell in love with Alice By Heart from the moment I first read and listened to it two years ago. It was the furthest in advance I ever selected a show, but I knew right away that I had to direct it. I've never been a fan of the original Alice in Wonderland; its strangeness frightened me when I was a child. However, the use of the source material as inspiration for this beautiful musical is some of the most brilliant and compelling work I have ever seen.
Alice By Heart revisits the horrors of true historical trauma. From September of 1940 to May of 1941, Germany conducted daily air raids on London, resulting in tremendous destruction, hardship, and loss of life. Thousands of Londoners sought shelter in underground tube stations every night. Alice By Heart focuses on a small group of these Londoners who find themselves sheltering together. Within this group is a young woman named Alice Spencer and her childhood best friend, Alfred Hallam. Alfred is ill with Tuberculosis, but Alice refuses to accept that there is nothing to be done to save him, for she loves him. Desperate for more time, Alice attempts to read Alice In Wonderland to him, as it was their favorite book and daily pastime as children. Alfred protests, saying he will not start what he cannot finish, but Alice begins the story anyway, using it to avoid facing the harsh reality in front of her. As she recreates each beloved chapter, the other traumatized souls in the shelter become the well-known characters of the story. Alfred becomes the White Rabbit, eternally concerned with time and desperate to reach the end of the story. But, attempting to keep him with her a little longer, Alice begins changing the story--skipping chapters, adding to scenes, and changing the lines--much to Alfred's dismay.
Through all of this, it becomes apparant that the story is not a child's story--but a human one. For while Alice and all the others find themselves literally "down the hole" in the Underground as they try to wait out the ongoing terror above, the parallel metaphor is that Alice drags Alfred "down the hole" and back into the story of their childhood in an attempt to escape the terror of his impending death and save him from reality. Alice's story, then, is about finding the strength to confront the loss of someone she loves. Each chapter of her beloved book provides her a way to prolong the agony, mirroring the many ways all of us attempt to cope with losing the things we love. Sometimes that is denial, sometimes it is recreating treasured memories, sometimes it means numbing the pain with a distraction or a vice, sometimes it means wallowing in the grief and being consumed by depression, and sometimes it means anger and taking out our grief on those we love. Often, it means experiencing all of these things before we find the courage to face the truth once and for all. And so, like Alice, we must all come to the inevitable trial. That trial is deciding if we will lose our head forever over our grief or if we will rise up and face it head on, finally accepting it and deciding to move forward. For many of us, we must face this trial more than once in our lifetimes. As the ever-wise Cheshire Cat reminds Alice, "Perhaps that is the story. It isn't hard to say hello, it's how we say goodbye." Our lives are stories of love and goodbyes. And, when we finally have the courage to say goodbye, we find ourselves transformed by the experience, just as Alice does.
While this musical has moved me to tears many days while we have worked through it, it is ultimately a story of hope. At the end, Alice sings, "Nothing comes or goes without a shadow. Somewhere in the soul you hold a candle. Let the sorrow go, it's half the battle. Down the hole you go, to where you are. Down the hole you go, and there you are." In our deepest grief and loss, we lose parts of ourselves; sometimes we lose nearly all of ourselves. However, we overcome our grief by going on, and in working through our grief, we learn to find ourself again. This self is a new self, one who is ready to embark on a new story, but one who is also irrevocably altered by the previous chapters.
And so, tonight, we invite you "down the hole" with us. Perhaps it will remind you of your own story and your own strength. Or, perhaps it will seem a silly, strange little story--one where the characters and the plot do not make much sense to you right now. If this is so, then enjoy your time in that golden afternoon of your garden. When the story's meaning suddenly becomes clear one day, remember, the only way is through, and the key's within you.
Director
Adriane Drum
