This innovative production aims to bring a whole new dimension to the well-known story: Cinderella as told from the point of view of a lonely soldier returned from war. Many soldiers have stories of lost romance, but in a theatrical twist this soldier has found himself without his lover, alone in his bookshop with only his stories for company.

 

It is here that the soldier takes us back to the war that he remembers. We find ourselves in the wonderful world of Cinderella, where our War Prince shows us his love trials through the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm tale. He pictures everything as if he were back in the heart of the war; caring Nurses as the fairies helping Cinderella, and the men presented as soldiers who've taken the King's shilling and are on the brink of being drafted out to war.

 

Whilst she still goes to a ball and has the help of a Fairy Godmother in getting there, Massenet's use of Charles Perrault's 1698 version of Cinderella provides an interesting twist between our Cendrillon production and the well known 1950 animated Walt Disney fairytale.

 

Cinderella is part of her step mother, Madame De La Haltiere's, army of servants, constantly rushed off her feet serving them. Her father, Pandolfe, is too frightened of Madame to stop her but constantly worries for Cinderella. Whilst she sleeps, the fairy Godmother dresses her in a magnificent dress. Awoken, Cinderella decides to go to the King's ball and seek her fate.