Programme 1

Teacher Notes

The present television drama of Cinderella does not entirely conform to the popular modern version that will be familiar to pupils. Indeed, in many lands through the ages, generations have freely adapted the traditional tale to local circumstance, culture and time. The following programme notes draw attention to some intriguing variations and cinematic techniques that might be explored with pupils.

‘There was once upon a time, a gentleman who married for his second wife the proudest and most haughty woman that ever was known...’

‘Cendrillon’, Charles Perrault

8mm prelude

At first, the ‘once upon a time’ voiceover seems to introduce a conventional fairy tale. Unusually, however, the narrator names the queen and prince. In the popular versions of Cinderella (that are based on the 1697 French tale by Charles Perrault), the prince is not named and there is no queen. Unconventionally, too, ‘once upon a time’ is at once corrected — ‘well, just last year as a matter of fact...’ Also unlike the traditional tale, we are introduced to the future stepmother and discover her motive for marrying Cinderella’s widowed father: ‘You shall go, girls! I promise you’.

What are we to make of what appears to be an amateur (scratched) 8mm movie film? As young people today are probably unfamiliar with this format, what audience is being targeted during the opening couple of minutes? Note also the contribution made by the choice of theme music. Decisions reached here may need to be qualified when, for example, a sequence of loud rock music is featured later!

Clearly, the story about to unfold will not adhere rigidly to the classic version of Cinderella derived from Perrault. Should it? Pupils who are already familiar with the versions by Perrault and the Brothers Grimm will be able to recognise how this drama borrows elements freely from both; this should heighten interest in prediction exercises and stimulate discussion.

Felim & Zezolla

03.00 mins. The principal character is introduced and established. Note how audience interest is heightened by what she does and what she says. The environment or setting also makes an important statement about her character.

05.00 Reflect on the importance of the mood established when a second character (the manservant, Felim) is introduced.

05.30 Important, too, as one of the themes of this production, is the heroine’s key question: ‘What shall I do with my life?...I want to do something useful’. This promises not to be the passive Cinderella character of the popular fairy tale.

06.25 For all the realism treated so far, notice here the hint that fantasy has a significant role to play in this narrative. Need this element render the story unreal? Does fantasy play any necessary part in our own lives?

Father & stepfamily

07.00 The contrast of family happiness and conflict is an important dramatic development. Attention may be drawn to how music rather than dialogue actively interacts here with our interpretation of character.

The Stepsisters

Do pupils expect a pair of pantomime ugly sisters? Perrault says only that ‘Cinderilla, not withstanding her poor clothes, was a hundred times handsomer than her sisters, though they wore the most magnificent apparel’. But do clothes alone make a woman?

How appropriate is it that these stepsisters are (at first) nameless (as is our heroine!), or that little differentiates them beyond their jealous rivalry. Reflect on how their introduction contrasts with that of the heroine.

The stepsisters’ names are announced as Goneril and Regan: an allusion to the two scheming, worthless daughters in Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’!

08.40 The heroine is now identified, not as Cinderella but as Zezolla, the name of the princess in Europe’s earliest printed Cinderella story — ‘The Cat Cinderella’, by Giambattista Basile (published in 1634). In this tale, the princess is so victimised by her new stepmother that she falls ‘from the salon to the kitchen...from splendid silks and gold to dishcloths, from sceptre to spits; not only did she change her state but also her name, and was no longer Zezolla but given the name "La Gatta Cenerentola" (Cat-among-the-Cinders)’.

Perrault’s heroine, however, actively chose ‘to go into the chimney corner, and sit down among the cinders, which made her commonly be called in the house "Cinderbreech": but the youngest [stepsister], who was not so rude and uncivil as the eldest, called her "Cinderilla"‘.

The Brothers Grimm tell simply how ‘on account she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her "Aschenputtel" — (i.e. a lowly, dirty kitchenmaid)’.

17.10 Consider how the Zezolla-Cinderella name change in the present drama is made to serve a particular dramatic purpose.

Sisters pressurise Cinderella

Cinderella’s virtue and innocence (never an attribute in the traditional, pre-Perrault stories) is contrasted with the sneering stepsisters’ corrupt attitudes, appearance and behaviour. Ironically, the worse they behave, the greater can be Cinderella’s triumph!

Father & stepmother

The apparent love of the parents is undermined here by their callous dismissal of Cinderella (and by the stepmother’s open hostility toward the father at 14.20).

Memories of real mother

12.50 In marked contrast to her parents ‘love’, Cinderella clearly loves her late, real mother.

Note how lighting, sound and special effects are employed to convey the extent of Cinderella’s misery.

Sisters profess their ‘love’

‘The father was once going to the fair and he asked his two step-daughters what he should bring back for them’, wrote the Brothers Grimm. How is the idea reworked here? The father demanding a declaration of love from his daughters is straight from Shakespeare. Like their famous literary namesakes, the stepsisters can think only in materialistic terms.

In stark contrast, Cinderella’s reply — ‘I do not love you any more or any less than an honest daughter should’ — echoes Cordelia’s dutiful answer to Lear. Why does her father fail to appreciate the rightness of her answer? Is it foolish pride? Is her style of answering harsh? Ought she to have made a reply to pacify him, for expedience?

Traditionally, the father plays little role in this tale; Perrault dismisses him in a sentence — ‘he was entirely run by his wife’. In the present production, is the character being developed into that of a substitute parent, not unlike the stepmother? Has Cinderella lost both her real parents?

In Basile’s ‘love test’, while the sisters plead for riches, Princess Zezolla asks only that she be recommended to the fairies. Their gift to her of a magical tree, from which a female fairy appears to assist Zezolla attend a royal feast, finds an echo in the present drama’s request from Cinderella that she be allowed to plant cuttings from a rose bush on her mother’s grave (18.30).

Thankless chores

The stepmother now initiates the first eruption of the theme of evil conflicting with good. The first consequence of this is her unreasonable imposition of household chores for Cinderella to undertake (19.30). What does shoveling cinders, scrubbing, cleaning and polishing contribute to the characterisation of Cinderella? Do we admire her perseverance and view her acceptance of (and ability to perform) hard work, without complaint, as character building? Is she facing up to the harsh reality of life or is it a weakness that she can not ‘stand up for herself’?

Mother’s spirit

21.20 In stark contrast to the evil of the stepmother, the spirit of Cinderella’s real and good mother is invoked and — as in the old oral tradition of this tale — reincarnated as a helpful creature (also see 24.00). The undying love of a good mother is something Cinderella appreciates and respects. Closely examine how special effects are employed to associate the bird with the mother’s spirit. Consider the appropriateness of morphing wings and outstretched arms.

Magical help from birds or animals (excluded by Perrault) is a motif common to the traditional versions of Cinderella stories. In the Brothers Grimm, doves and pigeons help Cinderella with her household chores and, later, a ‘bird threw a gold and silver dress down to her, and slippers embroidered with silk and silver’.

Bloodsports outrage

The killing of birds and animals is defended by the stepsisters (21.40). Notwithstanding that the drama positions us as sympathetic to Cinderella, is there a balanced argument here concerning blood sports?

Family hostility

23.30 Might this scene illustrate a more complex situation than a simple confrontation of evil (the family unit) and good (Cinderella)? Is not the stepmother a good mother to her two daughters? Cinderella’s father appears inconsiderate but is he not blinded by the spell cast upon him by the stepmother? Isn’t her real father ‘dead’ until the spell is lifted? If he is as much a victim of the stepmother’s evil as Cinderella, why do we feel little sympathy for him? Why do female roles in this story eclipse those of men? Why are the active characters in both the old oral tradition and Perrault’s version of ‘Cinderella’ exclusively female?

Communing with her mother

24.00 Cinderella mourns for her real mother (and father?). Is this easy escapism? What way is this to face up to reality? Can her planting and nurturing of the rose bush be taken as showing some initiative? Or might such moments as this be viewed as the good mother continuing to watch over her faithful child?

Invitation to the ball

The altogether mercenary mother is a dramatic contrast to the preceding scene. The introduction of a royal ball (or feast — a characteristic of the European tradition of Cinderella stories) serves here to complicate the ‘sub-plot’ of stepmother and father relationship.

Help from beyond the grave

Lighting and imagery connote Cinderella’s continuing isolation. The cliff-hanger we anticipate must be how Cinderella’s dilemma at being excluded from attending the ball can be resolved. For the Brothers Grimm, Cinderella simply cries to the graveside tree for the silver and gold she needs. In the popular version by Perrault, ‘she fell a-crying’ and a fairy godmother appears to solve the problem by magic. What might our Cinderella do?

Will it be in spite of the stepmother, or because of her cruelty, that Cinderella might determine to attend the ball and meet the prince? Is evil the catalyst that spurs our heroine to resist? Or is it goodness that proactively leads Cinderella to explore for an answer to the quest she signaled at the beginning: ‘What shall I do with my life?’ (05.30).