Jabberwocky
Visual Story
A visual resource for children and young adults with
Autism, Aspergers, Sensory Processing Disorder and
associated conditions.
This resource is intended to help prepare any visitors for
a new experience and to help them to become familiar
with the surroundings and situation.
The show
The show lasts for 1 hour and there is no interval.
There are four puppeteers in the show.
The show mostly has recorded music but some of the
dialogue is spoken by the actors.
The only words used in the show are from the poem
which you can read on the next page.
What Happens
The play is based upon the nonsense poem The
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, and focuses on a young
boy’s adventure in a mysterious forest.
In the play we see the boy interact with many different
monsters in the forest, including the JubJub Bird and the
Bandersnatch
Through meeting these monsters we see the boy gain
courage and skill, all preparing him for a final fight with
the scariest monster of them all…The Jabberwock!
Jabberwocky
BY LEWIS CARROLL
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Characters
The main character is played by 3 puppets:
A small marionette puppet
A large marionette puppet
A large rod puppet
This is a Slithy Tove. There are two of these in the
show.
This is a Bandersnatch:
This is a Mome Rath
There are four in the
show.
This is the Bandersnatch – he has very long arms and
legs.
This is the Jubjub Bird
This is a Borogove. There are two of these in the show.
This is a Prawn. There are two of these in the show.
And this is the Jabberwock
In this section information that is particularly
important such as warning of loud noises is in blue
font.
Play notes
The show opens with the actors bringing the small boy
puppet through the audience. One of the actors then
reads The Jabberwocky poem to the boy.
The small boy then enters his house before setting out
on his adventure. The big boy comes out of the house
and the house begins to attack him. They have a play
fight.
Two Prawns then enter the stage and interact with the
boy. Large pieces of wood then appear on stage and
create a forest.
Once the forest has been created a series of Mome
Raths and Slithy Toves appear.
Large green pieces of set now appear and the Mome
Raths begin to search the forest for a sword.
At this point there is a storm and sound effects are used
which may be loud.
After the storm Slithy Toves appear on stage and the
boy rides on their back to the front of the stage. The
Slithy Toves are mean to the boy.
Two Borogove Birds appear at the front of the stage and
scare the Slithy Toves off. These birds can jump out
very suddenly and can also be rather loud.
More pieces of wood are now used at the front of the
stage to create a forest.
The boy becomes friends with the Borogoves and they
help him pull the sword out of the ground.
The boy rides away on the Borogoves and there is
another storm, again this sound effect can be quite loud.
During the storm Mome Raths appear and are
frightened away by the Bandersnatch. The
Bandersnatch eats one of the Mome Raths.
On the front of the stage the boy and the Bandersnatch
soon become friends and the Bandersnatch teaches the
boy how to defy gravity in order to help him in his battle
with the Jabberwock.
During this section the Bandersnatch does come into the
aisle and interact with the audience. If you do not want
to interact with the puppet that is fine, you do not have
to.
The Jubjub Bird appears next and begins to practise
fighting with the boy. The Jubjub Bird keeps changing
shape.
The boy now exits on a Borogove and the set is moved
to look like the ocean. The boy rides on the waves in a
boat.
At this point the storm starts again and the same sound
effect is used which can be quite loud.
The boy then falls from the boat and flies down a hole.
He lands on the floor and the Prawns swim across the
stage.
At this point the Jabberwock enters and the sound of a
very high pitched noise is played. If you do not like it you
can cover your ears. The noise does not last for a very
long time.
The Jabberwock and the boy now fight and the boy
wins.
Once the Jabberwock is dead the wooden trees fall back
onto the stage and the Mome Raths appear again to
celebrate.
The boy then chops off the Jabberwock’s head and
there is a short blackout.
The boy then takes the Jabberwock’s head back to the
house and snow starts to fall.
The end.
We hope that you enjoyed the show at
Little Angel Theatre!