Theatre
Cinderellagame
Tuhkatriinumäng
Paul-Eerik Rummo · 1969
Synopsis
One stormy, snowy morning, on 9 February, the Prince knocks at the door of the house where, nine years earlier, he had found Cinderella thanks to the shoe she lost at the ball. After nine years of marriage, he suspects that he is living in the castle with a false Cinderella. Still living in the house are the family's two daughters and their mother; could one of them be the real one, and who, among them all, knows the truth? The Prince will not leave before he has learned it in full.
Context
Written in 1967, the play was rehearsed at the Vanemuine in Tartu by Evald Hermaküla and performed behind closed doors on 7 May 1968; authorisation from Tallinn was slow in coming, and the first public performance took place only on 19 February 1969, in the theatre's main hall. The text was published the same year. The production became one of the turning points of the Estonian theatrical renewal, and the play was staged as early as 1971 in New York, at the avant-garde theatre La MaMa, with the help of Mardi Valgemäe.
Who it is for
A play in six scenes, in Estonian, which exists in English under the title Cinderellagame. It is worth knowing that it presents itself as a fairy tale for adults.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the finest Estonian play, sometimes called the Estonian Hamlet, and the best known of the sixties.