Cinderella: A Fairytale

CINDERELLA:
A FAIRYTALE

Devised by the Company

CINDERELLA:
A FAIRYTALE

OBERON BOOKS
LONDON

WWW.OBERONBOOKS.COM

First published in 2015 by Oberon Books Ltd

521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7607 3637 / Fax: +44 (0) 20 7607 3629

e-mail: info@oberonbooks.com

www.oberonbooks.com

Sally Cookson and Adam Peck are hereby identified as authors of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The authors have asserted their moral rights.

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to c/o Oberon Books. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

PB ISBN: 9781783199686
EPUB ISBN: 9781783199693

Cover image by Farrows Creative

Printed, bound and converted

by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.

Visit www.oberonbooks.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.

Contents

Characters

Prologue

Act One

1. Ella

2. Step-Siblings

3. Step-Mother

4. Scrubbing the Floors

5. The BirdWatching Prince

6. Invitation to the Ball

7. Darning Socks

8. Night-Time

9. Preparing for the Ball

10. Broken Plates

11. Transformation

Act Two

1. The Ball

2. Flirting

3. Ella & Prince in the Garden

4. The Boot

5. Arriving Home

6. Prince’s Announcement / The Search

7. Prince Arrives at the House

8. Chopping the Toes

9. Blood in the Shoe

Epilogue

Characters

ELLA

FATHER

STEPMOTHER

SISTER

BROTHER

PRINCE

QUEEN

A chorus of BIRDS

Various incidental roles

(to be played by actors doubling, puppets, musicians etc.)

BABY ELLA

TODDLER ELLA

7 YEAR-OLD ELLA

WOODPECKER

NUTHATCH

WAXWING

FLAMINGOS

PALACE BAND

Notes on the play

–	Song lyrics are italicised.
–	In the original production the roles of Sister and Queen were doubled; Baby Ella, Toddler Ella and 7 year-old Ella were portrayed using puppets.
–	The place names mentioned during ACT TWO Scene 6 – Prince’s Announcement / The Search should be replaced with place names from the city, town etc. in which the play is being performed. The search should end by mentioning the closest well-known location to where the play is being performed. For example, the script printed here is from the production at Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol, and mentions various locations in Bristol; the search ends in Southville where the play was being performed.
–	Apologies to birders and tweeters (and anyone else who cares) for some inaccurate references to the attributes of some birds – they were mixed and matched for comic effect. I’ll leave you to discover where they are and why they’re “wrong”.
–	What follows is a series of notes from various members of the creative team. These notes are meant to shed light on how Cinderella: A Fairytale came into being, how the different theatrical elements combined and what inspired the choices we made. They are not meant to be prescriptive, and anyone creating a new version of the play should feel free to interpret the script as they see fit.
	AP

Director’s Notes

Before making any show, I ask “Why this particular story?” The reason I was interested in turning my hand to Cinderella was the fact that the story is so old. It has been circulating the world in multiple versions for centuries, it was around long before Perrault and the Grimm brothers got their hands on it and it varies radically in texture and flavour from one culture to the next. When we say the word “Cinderella” we are referring not to a single text (there is no definitive version), instead we are referring to an entire array of stories which centre around a persecuted heroine who responds to her situation in diverse ways.

I chose the Grimm version as our starting point because it is less syrupy and sentimental than Perrault’s (which Walt Disney used for his 1950’s film). It feels more like a folk tale that has come from the oral tradition, earthy and simple. Neither does it shy away from the darker elements of the story which are intriguing. It’s interesting to remember that Fairy Tales were not originally intended for children, but as entertainment for adults. We wanted to make a show that appealed to a wide age range without sacrificing any of the gory bits. This meant we had to be quite strict about the age recommendation – six up is about right, we discovered that families who bought along younger siblings often had to comfort their traumatised toddlers who didn’t understand that the toe chopping scene wasn’t real!

So what is it about Cinderella that gives it its enduring appeal? I’m not sure I know exactly what the answer is but I think it’s partly to do with the fact that it’s a story about family and growing up, and these are things we all share. It’s about a child losing a beloved parent and having to endure terrible suffering. It’s about grief, parental love, parental cruelty, sibling rivalry, jealousy, isolation, revenge, survival, falling in love and of course – magic! In fact what appears to be a very simple tale, actually addresses fundamental questions about what it is to be human.

I collaborated with a supreme team whilst making this show – we devised it together during a four week rehearsal period during which time the script slowly emerged. The process involved us re-acting to the Grimm’s version, using it as inspiration but also, in keeping with the oral tradition, adding to it, so that we as a group of storytellers reflect the world we live in.

Sally Cookson

Dramaturg’s Notes

Knowing that I am a playwright as well as a dramaturg people often assume that I wrote this script. And in the loosest sense of the word I did ‘write’ it: I committed the dialogue to paper, wrote the stage directions and edited it. However, as you will have noticed on the cover of this book, Cinderella: A Fairytale was devised by the Company, and that means many people were involved in its creation, in originating its dialogue and action, in discovering how to tell our version of the story. To ask who wrote the play is really to ask who authored it, and the simple answer is we authored it together, in the rehearsal room, improvising scenes which were then written down, refined, played out again and again, and slowly distilled into the play you see before you.