Cinderella

George Calderon

Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(3.8 stars; 18 reviews)

If you are expecting glass slippers and pumpkin coaches, look elsewhere... This is "a pantomime as Ibsen would have written it, if only it had occurred to him to write one."

Set on a "bleak and cheerless heath overlooking the fjord" we meet Ibsenesque heroine Mrs. Inquest, her step-daughter Hilda, and her daughter Hedda, who is engaged to be married to the unfortunate Tesman. Thus begins Calderon's hilarious Ibsenesque version of Cinderella.

NOTE from the editor of the volume, published in 1922 after Calderon's death: This play is hardly more than a rough draft, written when the idea was fresh and put aside to be worked on when the right moment should come. Unhappily it never came; but even in its present form the play has seemed too characteristic of its author to be lost, and it is therefore printed as it stands.

Devotees of Ibsen will recognise many names and references, but may not appreciate Calderon's irreverent parody of the master's work. People who know but do not like Ibsen may well find it very funny. (Summary by Ruth Golding)

Cast list
Mrs. Inquest: Ruth Golding
Hedda, her daughter, a distinguished fashionable person: TriciaG
Hilda, her stepdaughter: Helen Taylor
Madam Helseth, her servant: Xe Sands
Aunt Judy, her sister: Maria Kasper
Mopsyman, Aunt Judy's dog: Clara Snyder
Stockfish: mb
Tesman, his son (Acts I and II): David Barnes
Tesman (Act III): Ian King
A Demon: icyjumbo
A Fairy: Lucy Perry
A Hired Waiter: Ezwa
An Italian Waiter: Laurie Anne Walden
A German Waiter: Robert Steiner
A Chamberlain: Zames Curran
Stage directions and sound effects: David Lawrence

Audio edited by Ruth Golding (1 hr 34 min)