At the Eccles Black Box Theater in Salt Lake City, Sting and Honey Company presents a Shakespearean take on the beloved story of Cinderella. Written and directed by Javen Tanner, the battle between forgiveness and vengeance is clearly displayed. Cinderella is the third and final play written in a trilogy by Tanner.
Clever connections can be made in several of Shakespeare’s classic plays, including the Eumenides and Hamlet. The play still fits the traditional Cinderella story; however, new twists make the story a little more eerie. All the traditional characters weave a new and unique narrative about Cinderella’s struggle to combat evil. The story follows Cinderella (Rain Flower Tanner) immediately after her mother’s death. She suspects her step-mother (Deena Marie Manzanares) of something wicked. Cinderella journeys to speak with her mother’s ghost (Kathryn Atwood), bringing with her three other servants: Hero (Juliana Scheding), Bernadette (Kathy Frye), and Marcella (Nina De Vos). Learning that her mother and her mother’s two sisters have magical powers, Cinderella vows to avenge her mother and plans to visit her blind aunt, Eunomia. Eunomia, also played by Atwood, gives Cinderella slippers that will help her combat her evil step-mother’s powers. Cinderella goes to the ball, meets the prince (Jacob Thomason), and then has to rush home before getting a chance to speak to the king (Bijan Hosseini) about the evils within her household. The play reaches its climax as the prince searches for the owner of her abandoned slipper and everyone encounters the evil stepmother.
Tanner does a beautiful job at portraying Cinderella. She is adorable, and plainly illustrates the fight to save the ones she loves. Her ballgown, designed by Heidi Ortega, is gorgeous and just as sparkly and mystifying as the one in the Disney classic. The step mother, Manzanares, has an evil cackle that is a force to be reckoned with—it takes skill to make the audience flinch every time a character laughs, and she succeeds beautifully. Rosy, one of the evil step sisters, played by Kylee Reynolds, kept the audience laughing with the sheer stupidity of the things she does and says. She was honestly the best part of the play. Her lines were funny, and she admirably played an extremely dense character. Gilda, the younger step sister, played by Joclyn Nelson, attempts a withering glare and is in charge of house security, a fact made strange because of her youth, as she successfully portrays the role of the annoying younger sister. Thomason skillfully plays the arrogant, and slightly clueless, prince. Perrot, the king’s advisor played by Brian Whitney, has a dry humor that made everyone chuckle. Rosy and the advisor consistently make the audience laugh. Scheding, Frye, and De Vos effectively play three awkward servant girls who accompany Cinderella on her adventures. Even though she seemed to stumble over her lines a few times, Atwood brilliantly portrays a blind woman and convinces the audience she actually is blind. Stephen Williams plays Cinderella’s adorable father, and expertly portrays a man under the influence of the evil stepmother’s powers. He distinctly portrays a father’s love for his daughter.
The Sting and Honey Company put on a new and interesting perspective on the classic story of Cinderella. The background music, though repetitive and often misplaced, was fun and had little kids bouncing along. Finding the connections to Shakespeare plays was fascinating and is perhaps the number-one reason to see this play.
Eccles Black Box Theater presents Cinderella, written and directed by Javen Tanner.
Eccles Black Box Theater,131 Main St, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
July 12 – July 27, 2019 7:00 PM, Mon-Fri, Sat Matinee 2:00 PM
Recommended for families and ages 6 and up. 80 minutes, no intermission.
Tickets $20 https://artsaltlake.org/production/cinderella-3/
Contact: 801-355-2787
Theater Company Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stingandhoney/ the Sting and Honey Company
Cinderella Facebook Event Page
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