ALICE IM WUNDERLAND

It is one of the most famous stories in world literature. The White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, the smoking Caterpillar of the 1865 book are now iconic characters. The story of a girl named Alice who follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland appears to have become general knowledge not least because pop culture continues to pick it up. After all, »follow the white rabbit« is what Neo is told in the first instalment of the Matrix trilogy. Looking at the other side of reality questions previous certainties. Stuck in the conventions of English society and those of his profession as a lecturer in mathematics and logic at Christ Church College in Oxford, Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, celebrates the anarchic power of childish nonsense in Alice in Wonderland. It is funny, sad and bitter all at the same time and raises the question of what this Wonderland actually is. Who would Alice be today? Where exactly does she land? Is this world she falls into really of child-like innocence or is there instead an unsettling power structure underneath everything? »Off with their heads, off with their heads!«, cries the Queen of Hearts, but nothing appears to be meant the way it seems.

Oliver Frljić, Artistic Co-Director of the Gorki, is primarily interested in this story for how apparent nonsense can nevertheless have very serious consequences and Wonderland and Nightmare Land are closer together than we would like.


Premiere 2/March 2024


Photo: Esra Rotthoff
Stage photos: Ute Langkafel MAIFOTO