Martin and Peter Wesley-Smith’s 1977 work Boojum! received its premiere at the 1986 Adelaide Festival, directed by Gale Edwards. Sitting somewhere on the fault line between opera and musical theatre, it takes characters from Lewis Carroll’s timeless Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and interweaves them with the Victorian author’s classic nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark. Along the way, it reveals the life of the man behind the pen name – the Reverend Charles Dodgson – and his relationship with Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for the literary Alice. Presented as part of the VO Emerges program, Stuart Maunder’s production stars David Hobson as both Carroll and the Reverend Dodgson. Warwick Stengårds conducts the VO Chamber Orchestra.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

With dark twists and humorous turns, Boojum! blends the much-loved tale of Alice in Wonderland with Lewis Carroll’s nonsensical poem The Hunting of the Snark.

Meanwhile, it provides an imagined insight into the writer and the sensational world he created. Boojum! will transport you into his psyche as he grapples with his dual identities: the Reverend Charles Dodgson, and his pen name Lewis Carroll, the beloved children’s author. It will introduce you to an array of characters from both these worlds. It follows a young Alice as she meets folk from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland series, and it examines the relationship between Dodgson and the real-life inspiration for Alice, Alice Liddell.

Sitting somewhere between opera and musical comedy, Boojum! will be performed as part of our VO Emerges program.

And what is a Snark? What is a Boojum? Well, that’s up to you.