Alice sits at the head of the table looking splendid in contemporary colonists’ clothing, for she is playing Samuel Adams, leader of the Sons of Liberty who three years later will become one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence and founding fathers of the United States. Perched above Alice is a glowering gryphon, a symbol of the power and autonomy so urgently desired by the colonists

And if Alice…or Samuel…is looking a little irritated, it’s because the Mad Hatter at the other end of the table is actually none other than ‘mad’ King George III himself, head of the British state responsible for the punitive ‘taxation without representation’ that had so angered the Sons of Liberty. As if the Mad Hatter could be any more infuriating

Between the two opposing parties sits a somewhat shellshocked March Hare, whose Native American dress gives him away as one of the men who had spent a long, tiring night destroying the ships’ cargo before carefully sweeping the decks clean and making sure everything else was left just so!

He must be exhausted, and well in need of that cup of tea…

And finally, beside the Mad Hatter sits the dozy Dormouse, smartly dressed and keeping note of checks and balances on his ledger, here representing the Boston tax and duty officers who must have spent that morning trying to make sense of the huge losses to the British purse caused by all that tea now floating around in the harbour waters.