<i>Cinderella</i> as a Christmas gift

One of the unmistakable signs of the winter festive season is the appearance of attractive and vivid fairy tale plays, which put children as well as grown-ups in a holiday mood, on the playbills. A premiere of the new version of Cinderella, based on the play by Evheny Shvarts, took place at the Ivan Franko National Theatre on December 25. The young director of the play, Kateryna Chepura, had captured all the integral attributes of the New Year’s night: a clock that strikes 12, wonders of the good fairy godmother, a pompous ball at the royal palace, and the reward for kindness.

The good old story, loved by many generations of children, was turned into a musical by the duo of composers, Viktoria Vasalatii and Yurii Kondratiuk. The characters sing charming songs and perform breathtaking dances not only on stage, but sometimes even in the parterre, or appear in the box of the last circle of the theatre in a wink of an eye (choreography by Olha Semeshkina, set design by Kateryna Markush). Children are quite fastidious spectators, they sincerely believe in the magic of theatre and the genuineness of the fairy tale characters. Yet they are the most captivated, the most grateful audience that believes in miracles implicitly, and therefore, in the magic of theatre, which often neglects this trust, unfortunately. A lot of things were done in Cinderella to prove that children’s plays are no second-rate product, released in the pre-seasonal hurry and fuss. Still the authors kept faithful to the doubtful tradition of lip-synching, which is still used in the children plays. One can only be surprised by such decision, knowing the potential of the performers. However, some actors’ failure to lip-synch was fully compensated by the drive of the performance. That is where the young actors were given a free hand, so they did not have to keep back the explosion of emotions, the passionate vigor, and the energetic movements. Each of the performers portrayed their characters generously, for everyone to like and remember them. Funny jester King (Pavlo Moskal), ratty Stepmother (Ksenia Vertynska), her daughters, obnoxious damsels Hannah (Ksenia Basha-Dovzhenko) and Mariana (Olena Medvedieva), gentle Cinderella (Anzhelika Savchenko), shy Prince (Ivan Zalusky), and kind Forester (Yurii Rebryk) – each of the actors is a wonderful performer. This is easily proved by the never ceasing laughter and the applause of the audience. Even though you know the plot by heart, it is still interesting to watch the way this familiar and yet ever new characters come out from the labyrinth of their adventures and live happily ever after. Though not for long, only till the beginning of the next show. The premiere is on December 27 through 30 and January 3 through 5.