I've been spending a little time on an ongoing project trawling the web for Alice In Wonderland material that I haven't seen before.

I came across this.

Is that the most bizarre literary adaptation since the Lego Brick Bible or what?

Anyone know of a weirder adaptation? Of anything?

even the Viking kitties are more interesting.

Never claimed it was interesting (except maybe to me), I claimed it was weird.

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Originally posted by BobHale:
I've been spending a little time on an ongoing project trawling the web for Alice In Wonderland material that I haven't seen before.

I came across this.

Is that the most bizarre literary adaptation since the Lego Brick Bible or what?

That is extremely strange. I'm intrigued and now I'll go and Google for the Lego Brick Bible to see what that's all about.

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Anyone know of a weirder adaptation? Of anything?

Not at the moment, but there are many weird things out there in Netland, so I'll keep an eye open for them.

no need to get testy. I was just making an observation. And you are correct; is very weird.

While I generally don't like odd adaptations, I rather liked this...especially with the music.

As for having seen a weirder adaptation, yes, I believe I have. Many years ago Shu and I went to see the Mikado at the Chicago Lyric Opera House. It was a contemporary adaptation of that lovely operetta, and it was absolutely awful! Shu, do you remember any specifics?

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As for having seen a weirder adaptation, yes, I believe I have. Many years ago Shu and I went to see the Mikado at the Chicago Lyric Opera House. It was a contemporary adaptation of that lovely operetta, and it was absolutely awful!

I'm not very happy with modern adaptations of classics, on the whole. I've seen very few that actually work. Having said that, I recently went with a friend to see a Welsh National Opera touring production of "the dynamic duo" Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci.

"Cav" had a traditional setting and costumes, which were excellent and "Pag" was updated to the 1930s, which worked surprisingly well. The "players" did their show from a truck which had fold-down sides forming the "stage".

I sing and I've done a lot of G & S productions, including The Mikado. I was Cousin Hebe in a student production of HMS Pinafore in 1991. I was a mature student (aged 40) and the cast was one of the most motley crews (pun intended) I have ever performed with.

For those who don't know, HMS Pinafore is the ship and the plot is a barbed dig at the Victorian class system and snobbishness in general. It centres on the Captain of the ship, Ralph (the First Mate) and Buttercup (a woman who sells knick-knacks to the sailors at the quayside). Josephine (the Captain's daughter) falls in love with Ralph, but the Captain objects because of Ralph's lowly position.

There's a "shock horror" revelation by Buttercup at the end when she reveals that she used to be a nursemaid and had looked after both the Captain and Ralph and she'd "mixed the babies up at birth" and Ralph should really be the Captain. So Josephine can marry Ralph after all (although he must be her father's age, that fact is conveniently overlooked and he's always played by a much younger man).

Given this information, you can see why our production was so hilarious. The Captain was a post-grad student from Goa (a former Portuguese colony off the coast of India) in his mid-20s. He was an Indian with a Portuguese name. We didn't have anyone able to sing Ralph's high tenor, so our musical director sang the part himself. He was Caucasian and in his mid 30s at least. Josephine came from Glasgow and had a broad Scottish accent. As I've already said, I was Cousin Hebe (a relative of the Captain) and, having schemed throughout to get Ralph for myself, I have to "make do" with the Admiral (another post-graduate student in his mid-20s!) at the end. Buttercup was in her second undergraduate year and was only about 19 or 20!

You can imagine the audience reaction to Buttercup's revelation at the end! The Captain brought the house down when he ad-libbed that he'd "caught a touch of the sun while sailing in the tropics"!