Since this week has for some reason been about Snow White in a good percentage of the entries, I thought this was quite fitting for Friday. A twist in the fairytale is an article about a different rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs performed by students in Malaysia. In the end, the article describes a very interesting mish mash of cultures. The event was for students learning English through drama, but I think we English speakers can learn a little about how tales can be perceived and interpreted by another culture.
The play, based on the children's fairytale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, showed the length Snowy, the disaffected princess and child of King Edward of Attinsmoor, goes to overcome her feelings of inadequacy after the death of her mother, the queen.
Bitter at her father, the king and his new wife, Snowy, unleashes a series of evil acts, some of which result in the death of the new queen and her baby.
The largely sombre mood of the play was punctuated by comical displays involving the guards of Attinsmoor and Reim over the hand of the kingdom's handmaid.
The play also showed how the embittered Snowy easily fell into the trap of evil witches, whose deception causes the princess to kill her lover, the prince from another kingdom, and eventually her father.
The hair-raising shrieks, screams and antics of the witches were truly something to behold.
King Edward, a round and portly figure amused and surprised the audience with varied displays of emotions.
The play ended with Snowy regretting her misdeeds.
Definitely not your mother's Snow White. More like your grandfather's darkest Shakespeare. Or a Greek tragedy a few thousand years late....
Definitely not your mother's Snow White. More like your grandfather's darkest Shakespeare. Or a Greek tragedy a few thousand years late...
ReplyDeleteWow, yes, that interpretation is quite intriguing, but definitely reads more like a Greek tragedy than like the "Disney Princess Collection."