Off With Their Heads
HE producers and begetters of the dramatised episodes from Alice in Wonderland and its séquel, should be lightly boiled and fed to the Jabberwock on a charge of sacrilege. I do not mind Tweedledee having a Lancashire accent, for that is the best of tongues in which to say "Contrariwise;" the gentleman who acts the Caterpillar and also (I think) Humpty Dumpty is. admirably cast; I even tolerate Arthur Askey as the Mad Hatter, whom he doesn’t in the least resemble. What I do wish to curse and deride, with all the rage of the purist and fundamentalist, is the practice of inserting songs in that in--spired text, for which I can find no warrant in the master’s original writings. There are at least three; and the crime they amount to is far more heinous than that (for instance) of A. A. Milne, who made a play out of "The Wind in the Willows" which was not very like it. For Milne made no bones about his adaptation; it was a different thing with a different title; but this is supposed to, be the work of Lewis Carroll. Swing "John Peel," if you must; but additional songs should not be inserted in the Alice Saga without Jarge labels signed by the producer, saying "It is my own invention."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19451207.2.16.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 337, 7 December 1945, Page 8
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222Off With Their Heads New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 337, 7 December 1945, Page 8
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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