...

[lace_agate]

So, I'm acting in our school production which is a play in which, basically, a bunch of characters from famous plays complain about their lives, decide to kill themselves and then change their minds and live happily ever after.
And I'm playing Hedda from Ibsen's Hedda Gabler.
She's a bit psycho.  It's fun.

On an unrelated note, I was thinking about fairy tales and how usually the heroine'sonly function is to wait around for the handsome prince to rescue her and how much that sucks.  And then I was thinking about fairy tales that aren't like that, and that got me thinking about various retellings of fairy tales.  So which fairy tales do you particularly like, and are there any retellings that made you like stories you were otherwise indifferent to or disliked?
Personally I love The Snow Queen even in its original format with its somewhat patronising narrator.  There are several reasons for this: that the heroine rescues the hero instead of the other way round, the way she journeys from 19th century Frankfurt into more timeless imaginary places and the way she travels through the four seasons.  As for retellings, I particularly like Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted (Cinderella), Adele Geras's Watching the Roses (Sleeping Beauty) and Lili Wilkinson's Scatterheart (East of the Sun, West of the Moon).

So yeah.  Studious post is studious.  Or something.

Comments

[shadowsinfire.livejournal.com]

What about North Child? I don't remember the author. It's also a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

[mirarie.livejournal.com]

North Child is by Edith Patou :) Robin Mckinley is another author who has done some fairy tale retellings...

I can think of quite a few tales where it is the heroine who rescues the hero, though often the girl is rescuing her friend or brother(s) as opposed to her romantic interest...

When's your production? Can I come and see it?

[shadowsinfire.livejournal.com]

That's the one ^^ And I like Sophie Masson's Cold Iron too, which Chloe's talking about below us...

The production's on the 28th or something. I'm not in it this year (the performances are three and four days before my music exam). I don't see why you shouldn't be able to see it! Tamsin would be able to tell you more about it, though.

Production dates

[dawnduskdancer.livejournal.com]

There's a performance at 7pm on the 29th and one at 1pm on the 30th. It's at Newtown Community Centre. I'm sure you can come!

[grass-angel.livejournal.com]

*fangirls over 'Watching the Roses'* Though it's sequel was disturbing...
I really like some of Sophie Mason's stuff like 'Cold Iron' and 'Clementine'.

There are some more but... I can't think of them or they were really cleverly done.

Oh! And what about Rose Red, Snow White and how one of them saved the bear who turned out to be a prince? (I always felt so sorry for the one who didn't get him...)

[shadowsinfire.livejournal.com]

I like Cold Iron too.

Didn't the other one get someone else? I don't remember the story...

[grass-angel.livejournal.com]

Apparently she got his brother.

[shadowsinfire.livejournal.com]

Right... I guess it still kinda sucks cause she wouldn't have known anything about him in advance.

Yes, I know this is getting ridiculous.

[grass-angel.livejournal.com]

You know what I want to say, right? Especially because their mother makes a comment about them sharing everything right at the beginning.

Threesome.

Well.

[shadowsinfire.livejournal.com]

It solves everything.