HANDS DOWN PRODUCTIONS
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IN THE GOLDEN AFTERNOON is the bitter-sweet story of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, Lewis Carroll's inspiration for ALICE IN WONDERLAND. After a life of disapointment, loss and regret, she is visited on her deathbed by Lewis Carroll, who takes her back to Wonderland, so she can come to terms with her past where all her best moments and fondest memories await.
Humpty Dumpty sings
Jabberwocky
JABBERWOCKY is perhaps the most famous of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poems and we thought it would make an excellent Troubador song in the fashion of old English traditional ballads. In Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty translates it for Alice.
Talking Flowers teach Rose Etiquette
The talking flowers represent Alice's mother and her daughters, one of whom -- Lacie -- is all mixed up (Lacie is an anagram of Alice). The melody of Rose Etiquette was composed by Lewis Carroll; we took it and gave it a semi-Baroque feel.
The Lobster Quadrille
or
The Mock Turtle Song
The Quadrille was one of the most complex and difficulte ballroom dances in Lewis Carroll's day, It is probable that Alice Liddell and her sisters where taught the dance by a hired tutor,
Love Makes the World Go Round
"Tut, tut child," said the Duchess, Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it . . . and the moral of that is -- 'Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love makes the world go round!'"
The Cheshire Cat asks Alice:
Where Are You Going?
Sung by the Cheshire Cat, it is a play on the confusion about directions in Wonderland. We quoted Robert Frost's Through the Yellow Wood in the release.
Butterfly
Charles Dogson (Lewis Carroll) was not the stuttering, shy professor of popular myth. He was in fact, a very sociable, man-about-town. Dodgson was a great admirer of the poet Wordsworth and gave volumes of his poems to his friends, both young and old. This song is inspired by Wordsworth’s, The Butterfly, and is sung to Lewis Carroll's muse, Alice Liddell. .
Old Alice lets go of her regret:
Once Upon a Time.
The verse to Once Upon a Time is inspired by St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Sung by the old Alice Hargreaves, it is her final acceptance of her past before the end, and a new beginning.
