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Forget the ugly sisters... 'fat bitch' in Cinderella upsets audience
AMAR SINGH03.12.08
A production of Cinderella aimed at children has cut a scene in which a character is called a "fat bitch" after shocked audience members walked out during previews.
But the word "slut" and a scene involving violence have not been dropped from the festive "family play" showing at the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith.
Cinderella is billed by the theatre as "the only show to see this Christmas for everyone seven plus".
One mother, who went to see the play with her eight-year-old daughter and her schoolfriends, said she was "horrified" by the "gratuitous violence".
She told the Standard: "We were expecting fairy godmothers, pumpkins and mice - not violence, bloodshed and swearing.
"One of the girls in our group was in tears. I had to calm my daughter down, too. She was traumatised by a scene in which birds peck the eyeballs out of the ugly sisters.
"There was a scene in which Cinderella gets a really bad beating from her stepmother, too, and it's really violent by any standards.
She added: "At the start the prince said 'I'm bloody fed up', which I thought was pushing it, but I didn't know that worse was to come.
"We stayed till the end, which I regret, but some people walked out.
"One middle-aged couple walked out during the interval. They were shaking their heads and said 'this is not suitable for kids'."
The play's director, Melly Still, specialises in "dark portrayals" of children's stories.
A spokeswoman for the Lyric said: "A scene in which the stepmother is called a 'fat bitch' has been removed by the director.
"A lot of work has been done since the previews."
Reader views (5)
I read the London paper tonight, which said that mothers "must have been hysterical to get upset by this charmer... This is dark but only that it ditches the godmother for a Grimm Brothers spin, which any child who's read Roald Dahl should cope with. This fairytale puts more winter magic than a hundred tired old pantos.' I'm guessing that last week was a slow news week, or that parents have forgotten that fairytales are meant to be dark and moral stories to ensure children are kind, generous and giving, not horrid and spiteful. Next they'll be suggesting that the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood shouldn't eat Grandma, that Hansel and Gretel aren't being fattened up by an old witch, or that Rupelstiltskin is just misunderstood!
- Neil, London
The production is not advertised as a pantomime. The show is a terrific production which is intelligent, clever and beautifully directed. There is no 'f word'. The story is true to the original Grimm fairytale and is all the better for it.
A great piece of theatre - don't go if you have difficulty with any entertainment that isn't spoonfed to you and smothered in cotton wool.
When I saw it the kids loved the darker aspects of it - they actually engaged with the show, rather than sitting and staring mindlessly.
- Alice, London
The audience probably didn't understand what it meant if it wasn't preceded by the F word.
- L.Taubler, London / UK
ive booked to go saturday now im not ,when you read web page for lyric about this it makes it sound wonderful and like the fairytail we all know .it should state clearly what type of production it is .it doesnot sound like a pantomime i want my son to see
- Liz Sharpe, new eltham london
Let's just ban the word 'children' and do away with the entire concept of "childhood." This way we can get down and nasty anywhere, with anyone, at anytime, without regard to who's watching or listening. What a great society and culture we will have, eh?
- Trunk, US
