Alice By Heart tells its characters in the most interesting way I've ever seen.
I once read a review of the show saying the characters were barely developed in the beginning, in an offhand comment about the show being confused.
I say to that the reporter was probably stupid.
We're not going to learn everything about these characters before we get to the wonderland bit. The audience came for an Alice In Wonderland story. So we learn about the characters as their Wonderland persona.
We learn that Angus is a stoner who copes with his regret and grief through...well, smoking.
We learn about *potential* romantic relations in the lobster dance.
We learn about Dodgy through the whole duchess scene, which is deeper than it seems and would probably need a whole lot more explaining to show what it says about his character, but basically, Dodgy is very clearly gay or even trans and, well, this is 1941.
Harold's little "riddle" in the tea party scene tells us his whole story, and we of course see his PTSD on display in the first scene.
Nigel, I feel, we learn more about in the real world scenes. All we learn from his Dormouse role is his childlike behavior.
Dr. Butridge has seen many patients and soldiers "sign up to die" in his time.
Tabatha has lost things (like her sister) and through her Cheshire Cat role wants to help Alice learn how to cope with loss.
There's a post somewhere on Tumblr that talks all about the symbolism in "Your Shell Of Grief" so go read that because it's great. (They did one for Brillig Braelig too) "Your Shell Of Grief" is also the song where we actually get deep with Clarissa's character. The rest of the time she's kinda a snob who believes she's above everything.
"Isn't It A Trial" is I believe targeted toward Alice's innocence of loving the sweet little fantasy book slipping away, but I believe the Red Cross Nurse is singing it because, unbeknownst to Alice, she's been through all that too. (And because the Queen Of Hearts in Alice's mind but we all knew that)
My point is, as opposed to letting us know these characters completely in the beginning and then putting them on an adventure, we spend the show learning these fascinating characters living in this difficult situation through the eyes of Alice's beloved storybook. And I love these characters deeply.
Also, read the book. You learn even more about them.
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