Alice's Day for grown-ups

performances, talks and walks on Saturday 10th July

promenade theatre

Don’t miss The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll's famous nonsense poem, 2pm at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden - an amazing adventure where anything can and will happen. This huge surreal game of hide-and-seek will be performed by Shiplake College Mad Dogs Theatre Company at a time to be confirmed.

Curious Company will provide a visual spectacle in city spaces throughout the day including a cabaret tea party at 12.15 in The Ghost Forest outside The University of Oxford's Museum of Natural History and at 3pm in Oxford Castle's Market Square.

Other theatre: 12.30-1.30pm. The University of Oxford's Museum of Natural History is hosting a performance of The Real Alice by Nick Mellersh about the life of Alice Liddell. This has been specially adapted for Alice's day from a script written for and first performed at the Lyndhurst Alice festival.

nonsense recitals and lunch party

Fancy dress with a literary twist at The Jam Factory's Mad Hatter's lunch party. Come to a special Wonderland lunch as your favourite Alice in Wonderland costume and recite a nonsense poem or prose piece of your own invention. Prizes for best costume and best recital with thanks to Storypods.
11am for 11.15am parade of costumes.

music

4pm Oxford welcomes Kristian Scheiblecker from Sweden to perform his new musical interpretations of Lewis Carroll's poetry at St Michael at the Northgate.

art

An exhibition of Salvador Dali's illustrations of Alice's adventures will be on display at The Bodleian Library; Blackwell's bookshop in Broad Street will be exhibiting Alice art by Tigz Rice throughout July; and The Museum of Oxford will have a display of work from Tracey Keeping.

Alice talks

On Tuesday 6th July at 7pm, Blackwell Bookshop will be hosting an 'Alice Panel Discussion'  with a number of writers offering different perspectives on Alice and her Wonderland.

On Alice's day, a morning of talks organised by The Lewis Carroll Society will run from 10.15am-12.30pm at the University of Oxford's Museum of Natural History with a science flavour. The programme includes the following topics:

10.15 am Alice in waterland by Mark Davies
11.00am  The Dodo: from extinction to icon by Errol Fuller
11.45am  Carroll and Surrealism by Mark Richards
This series is followed at 12.30 pm by The Real Alice, an hour-long play written by Nick Mellersh (see theatre, above).

In the afternoon a series of talks will be held at Binsey Church where visitors can see the famous treacle well in the churchyard.
12pm Gerard Manley Hopkins & the Binsey Poplars by Martin Henig
2pm  Historic Fields of Binsey by Julian Munby
3pm Binsey Church 500 years ago by Fr Anthony Rustell

walks and tours

10.15am Alice Tour
Alice in Wonderland was inspired by Alice Liddell. She spent her early years in Oxford, and her friendship with Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, led to the writing of the two Alice books. Join this tour, departing from the Tourist information Centre, to explore their Oxford. Tickets £3.00.

2pm Walk with a Purpose.
Alice in Waterland Walk  
A FREE guided walk of approximately 90 minutes around Christ Church Meadow highlighting the role of the River Thames in the creation of the Alice stories and as inspiration for some of the books' episodes, as well as references to other classic Oxford children's tales. Places are limited to 20, and can be reserved in advance. Starts from Museum of Oxford, St Aldates at  2pm.

Friday 9th July: River pilgrimage walk
A FREE 90-minute, 2-mile upstream pilgrimage following the route of the famous rowing trip of 4 July 1862 towards Godstow, where the phenomenon of ‘Alice’ had its birth. Starting near the site of the original ancient ‘Oxenford’, the river towpath passes remnants of Oxford’s industrial past, before a largely rural route encompasses a river lock, the site of Osney Abbey (inspiration for one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales), and a Victorian bathing spot near the junction with the Oxford Canal. This is followed by the extraordinary expanse of Port Meadow, where lies the hamlet of Binsey (and The Perch Inn), where the walk ends.  Binsey’s diminutive church and ’treacle well’ - the destination, like Osney and Godstow, of countless pilgrims of the past – is a short distance away; guidance is unnecessary, but can be arranged if desired.

This tour will leave from outside Alices Shop at St Aldates at 7pm to reach The Perch, Binsey in time for the evening screening of Tim Burton's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Organised by Oxford Water Walks