Lewis versus Alice

Who in the audience is entirely clear about Lewis? Who knows that Lewis Carroll was an eccentric clergyman from Oxford, a photographer, a logician, and a spiritualist? And who thinks they know Alice? With Lewis versus Alice, Macha Makeïeff dives into the fantastic universe of the great British writer to explore the psyche of this enigmatic poet who rebelled against Victorian conventions, a strange collector who would be celebrated by the Surrealists... His reverie shows us the contradictions of a troubled world where everything is in flux and can reverse itself with humour and fragility. Because “in Lewis Carroll's work everything is word, and only word, there's nothing dramatic about it, it's a like a conversation in a dream. It's 'said' and then it's gone...” Accompanied by gothic pop music, sounds and voices that seem to come from another world, the show makes the audience face the supernatural: a set and what sits behind, characters that disappear, half-light and shards of dreams, tongue twisters in French and English... Worlds atop worlds mirroring each other, like Lewis-Alice, who loved nothing more than to defy the cruelty of reality.

A garrulous writer with an enigmatic personality, Lewis Carroll was born in 1832 and grew up in a large family of 11 children, with an ecclesiastic for a father, during the strict time that was Victorian England. He dedicated his life to mathematics and to the writing of fantastic fictions, the most famous of which remains Alice in Wonderland.

The work of Lewis Carroll is published by Gallimard La Pléiade. Lewis Carroll's La Chasse au Snark, translated by Jacques Roubaud, is published by Gallimard.
Macha Makeïeff's Zone Céleste is published by Actes Sud

With Geoffrey Carey, Caroline Espargilière, Vanessa Fonte, Clément Griffault, Jan Peters, Geoffroy Rondeau, Rosemary Standley
and on picture Michka Wallon

Text Lewis Carroll
Adaptation Macha Makeïeff, Gaëlle Hermant after Lewis Carroll
Direction, costumes and stage set Macha Makeïeff
Lights Jean Bellorini
Music Clément Griffault
Sound Sébastien Trouvé
Hairstyle and make up Cécile Kretschmar
Magic Raphaël Navarro
Choreography Guillaume Siard
Images Clément Vial 
Direction Assistants Clémence Bezat, Claudine Crauland, Gaëlle Hermant, Arthur Chavaudret, Antoine Terrieux
English language advisor Camilla Barnes

Production La Criée Théâtre national de Marseille
Coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre Gérard Philipe Centre dramatique national de Saint-Denis, Maison de la Culture d'Amiens - Pôle européen de création et de production.
With the help of  Ateliers du Théâtre national populaire Villeurbanne for the stage set construction, Pavillon Bosio - Ecole supérieure d'arts plastiques de la Ville de Monaco; Haute École des arts du Rhin, Université Caen Normandie, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, LESA Aix-Marseille Université, École Axe Sud
Many thanks to the entire team of La Criée