Our director had already researched surrealism and knew what she wanted to do it. Others hadn’t and so hopes of devising a surrealist piece were low. So we decided to use our workshops to look at surrealist theatre and films. When watching these, we found that they were more interpretative than we wanted. We then began to watch clips of film, TV and theatre that we had seen that we thought had the same sort of atmosphere that we were hoping to create. This ranged from ‘Tellitubbies bear and lion sketch’ to ‘return to Oz’ Wheeler scenes and ‘American Horror story’ clown scenes. These clips had the aesthetics of surrealism in that the images were illogical and contradictory. Watching these and discussing ideas made us realise that what were after was in fact the surrealist aesthetic, rather than the style, meaning we wanted a series of scenarios and images that only made sense in terms of the whole piece, rather than as individual items.
Taking this into account, we then started some exercises based on the surrealist notion of random, illogical combinations. One of these that stood out in particular involved us writing three lists- one for actions, one for an animal and one for an object. We then picked one of each out at random and used them to improvise a short sequence. Although some members were willing to try this out, others were more reserved and questioned its usefulness. We decided that without a plot or a reason, we had returned to just surrealism, rather than surrealist aesthetic.

What better than a mixed cat pancake made by a mouse at the hands of a heavy vehicle?

In the story, Cinderella yearns to go to the ball and meet the prince while having one night of luxury and fun away from her life as a servant. As we wanted to portray a more objective fuelled Cinderella, we decided that the ball would be a good point to start off our newly styled improvising and devising process. With idea of contrasting images in mind, we thought of having a buffet with meals cooked by Cinderella, which ranged from meat balls made from eyes to real life gummy worms. Known for their greed, the sisters could probably be found at the buffet, stuffing their faces on the lavish food prepared for them, so it only made sense for them to be at the buffet, gorging on the foods without realising until the final dish what was really being served. As with the list exercise, it was met with a mixed response. Some liked the way it brought out a new, more sinister side to Cinderella, others felt that the idea of a creepy feast was overdone and others felt, although it worked in terms of the plot of the increasingly abusive Cinderella, the staging and props needed would become the driving force behind our performance, rather than our ideas.
So far, we had come up with ideas that either didn’t suit the story or that others didn’t understand. This only led to confusion and to meaningless ideas being tossed around. We began stressing about how little work we had and how lose our next work in progress was, leading to more panicked ideas which, in turn, led to stress. It was clear that we needed to return to basics if we were to get anywhere with our style or even piece. We had to ask ourselves ‘What was it that we wanted to convey and how could we do this?’
We left our first work in progress meeting with the advice to ‘experiment and discard’ and not to hold onto ideas for the sake of having ideas in our minds. Although it was hard at the time to admit defeat for that rehearsal and idea, we agreed to come back with a clear head and new ideas.
As much as we liked the dark twist on the ball, we felt that it was out of place and needed to be contextualised. Although we had agreed against it, we kept finding our way back to surrealism. So maybe the key was not to ignore surrealist style in favour of its aesthetics, but to take an idea of surrealism, namely, dreams.

In our first work in progress session, we showed a recording of the show (we had a screen and light set up that we couldn’t have in the session) and got feedback on it. The voice over, which was also recorded, was read by Emma as though reading a fairytale to a young child.
This was the feedback we received from it:

Should the puppets be articulated?
Although a very effective method of storytelling, it was not a wholly expressive approach. The more we do with it, the more impressive it will be. The only movement we had was the puppets bobbing, which looked as though it was an unsteady hand as not everyone was doing it. The images were also quite static over the narration and as a result, it felt longer than it was, and so perhaps scenery should be added as well as sound effects and other effects, such as party poppers.

The storyteller needs a character
As mentioned before, well known fairy tales come with expectations and these expectations would apply to the storytelling of the voiceover. We needed to decide who the storyteller was and whom she was telling- the audience? A child? A warning? And where we could get it from- a comedic character from the show? A bystander? Asking who the narrator would be got us discussing the part the narrator had in the piece which helped to clarify the overall structure.

Why is it being used?
We already had the reason for this but it wasn’t clear enough. Although the audience would (hopefully) realise why once the surrealism started, it needed to be clear straight away. With a clear character for the narrator, the right atmosphere would be achieved so as to create the required contrast between the structured reality of the puppet show and the randomness of Cinderella’s mind.
People also wanted to know why we had chosen to use this type of puppetry, rather than a more comedic sock puppet. The piece was dark comedy but only in Cinderella’s mind. We didn’t want the puppet scene to be comedic to provide contrast (and therefore clarity) or too complicated as it was an introduction as well as a separate state
By this stage, we had had a photoshoot for social media and print release. For these, we had focused more on the comedy element rather than surrealism as our style. The pictures reflected this, asking the question if we really understood the surrealist movement, or if we were just using the aesthetic of it. We realised we had reason for using surrealism and but didn’t understand it and so didn’t know how it was going to be used.

An image from our first photoshoot before our work in progress

We were left with the reminder that theatre is always a collaborative medium. The feedback we had received, I felt, was fair. We hadn’t researched surrealism as a company and that was clearly reflected in our marketing. The puppets, although good, were static, and their movements were bordering basic. Until now we had been agreeable to all suggestions within the group and although this created a good working relationship, it affected the quality. Ultimately, although theatre is collaborative, criticism is needed and decisions do need to be made even if unwelcome at the time and treated professionally, rather than personally.

Our next actions were clear: Research surrealism to make sure it was the right style for us, have someone take control and develop our opening puppet scene.

The surrealist party was established by Breton in the 1920s stemming from the Dada movement. Dada was essentially ‘anti-art’ and saw that rather than an expression of creativity, art was a tool by which right wing politics and war were encouraged and so created their own avant-garde movement that challenged the bourgeois, political nature of art. The surrealist movement, developed in the 1920s by Breton, stemmed from Dada and its notions that dramatic text was not a means by which to express meaning. Surrealism, although an art movement, was also a means by which its supporters and theatre could explore the human subconscious. Surrealism explored the human conscious through its notion that the nonsense of dreams and the logic of reality were not that different, as both were influenced by the human subconscious. Using techniques that allowed the subconscious to express itself such, such as encouraging madness and spontaneity, the human subconscious was explored through methods such as dream analysis. Dreams, with their lack of logical narrative and apparent nonsensical images, can arguably be seen as a reflection of the human subconscious.
A reflection of the human subconscious, we chose dreams as a means to explore Cinderella’s mind through the apparently illogical succession of images concluding in a logical explanation to Cinderella’s behaviour.
Although we had chosen the apparent randomness of surrealism as the style of our piece, it had to be clear which parts of it were happening in her head and which parts were happening for real. Because of this, and the fact the focus of the piece was Cinderella’s thoughts, we decided to have her dream like mind as surrealist and reality as a different style.
When deciding the style for reality, there were several factors we had to take into account. These were:
The importance of keeping reality and her mind separate to avoid a blurring of the two states
The focus of the piece was her internal thoughts, not her physical actions, so the reality should be simple but efficient.
The fact Cinderella was well known gave an obvious advantage as it meant that the story didn’t have to be explained for people to understand and follow it, giving the piece a secure basis from which to work with. However, this also mean that to perform a version of Cinderella meant that there were expectations we were expected to adhere to, including discourse markers, as well as other, popular versions that people had become used to and the expectations they could have left.
The narrative of the story of Cinderella was logical and structured, unlike her mind, and so the style needed to be structured and overall contrasting to the surrealist style of her mind.
These factors, although at first constraining, gave us, ironically, a structure which we needed to conform to in order for the differences between the two states to be absolute and appropriate. This gave us the idea for reality to be presented as it originally was- a fairy tale that was read out. As reality was not the focus, it was written in a summed up, reflective way that established the characters and their personalities and the main events that led up to the break down that sparked Cinderella’s imagination. To accompany the voice over, we decided to have shadow puppets as their simplicity and intimacy contrasted with the vibrancy and larger-than-life characters of Cinderella’s mind.

Screenshot of a recording of our first puppet scene

As an ‘all-female team’, not just the more feminine associated roles of costume and female acting roles would be done by women in our company and we wanted this strength and versatility of women to be reflected in our piece as it would be in our company’s structure. However, we wanted to do this in a way that wouldn’t make the audience fell as though it was being shoved down their throats or they were being preached at.
Fairytales are known by all and often feature a damsel in distress who gets saved by the male hero. What better way to show the strength of women than through a well-known story about women. The next step was to choose a fairy tale and an issue or event through which to see women. We went away to think of different issues and different tales.
When we brainstormed our ideas we found the most popular ones linked the issue to the tale. For example makeup, self-image and body confidence was linked to Rapunzel with her tower a metaphor for her anxiety, ‘porridge’ became a STI in Goldilocks and even though someone had sex with her, she was the one labelled a slut and Pinocchio was the media’s (literal) puppet.

The start of our ideas

We decided to focus on the story of ‘Cinderella’, a young woman abused by her Step-mother and Step-sisters, as it featured women that were passive and kind- Cinderella- and women that were cruel and dominant- the Step-mother.
Now that we had the story, we had to decide on an issue. Our first thought was abuse, how Cinderella suffered at the hands of her sisters and how we could link this to a modern day issue. We went through a range of ideas- cyber bullying, domestic abuse, peer groups, specifically how women were affected by these. However, we wanted something that didn’t single out women as that neither celebrated their strength (as the fact we were speaking for them would make them seem as though they needed representation) nor gave the audience the chance to have their own decisions about the characters and story. We then decided to go back to basics. Just as Fairy tales are timeless, so should the issue they were used to address, meaning that rather than being a specifically modern day issue, it should be one that could be openly interpreted. This led us to question why the sisters behaved the way they did towards Cinderella. The answer, we decided, would be the plot.
Just as the sisters were abusing Cinderella, their mother was abusing them, showing the effects people can have on others and the impact of their choices. Following on from this idea and people having a dark and a light side, we wondered what would happen if Cinderella was the abusive one towards her sisters than as in the Disney version, which people would potentially be more familiar with, had Cinderella leaving her abuse through marrying a prince, rather than turning on her sisters. As the focus of the piece was the idea of each person having both good and bad in them but them choosing which one to act on, we had to find a style that could show the thoughts of Cinderella but in way that made sense to the audience as well as staying loyal to the focus of the piece.