BetweenOnce Upon A Time,Grimmand even the wildly successfulWicked, adaptations and reimaginings of traditional fairytales are incredibly in vogue at the moment. Enter renowned Australian actor Mandy McElhinney in Belvoir Street Theatre’s new production ofCinderella. If you think it’s going to be drenched in glass slippers and fairy godmothers, you’re very much mistaken.

“Part of the delight will be finding the thread of the story that we know, or that we think we know,” McElhinney explains. “Cinderella has many, many different incarnations in all cultures, but basically, the same story has been told. There are some key elements that are hidden quite delightfully within the play. On the surface, it won’t look like it’s a play about Cinderella, but it is absolutely inspired by the story.”

The question is, who are the two main characters going to be if not Cinderella and Prince Charming? “The two characters are middle aged and approaching that feeling of thinking, ‘Am I always going to be on the shelf? Am I going to meet someone?’” says McElhinney. “A lot of people do that by going online and hooking up with people. But they have to meet to find out if they actually have a spark. These are two people who are quite uncomfortable in the world and find it very hard to connect and find people who are like them. There’s nothing hip or cool about these characters. They’re quite vulnerable.

“The character I’m playing is a woman who is wanting to meet someone. She’s terrified of becoming a crazy cat lady and always being alone. At the same time, she does feel quite comfortable being alone. There’s a comfort in that, rather than taking the risk of putting herself out there and meeting someone.

“But she wants to be rescued, in a way. I think that from those fairy stories there is very much a theme about the women being rescued, and I guess it’s a journey of her trying to find her own courage. Matt [Whittet]’s just written the character so beautifully that really, it’s going to take the same amount of courage to just be honest and expose myself in the same way that the character does.”

Although this is a modern reimagining of Cinderella, you’ll still be able to spot little throwbacks to the original story. “There’s the idea of going to the ball, but in our world it’s a pub. There’s the idea of the shoes and the fairy stories. Fairy stories are put into the play, but they’re stories from the characters’ own lives. The element of time, midnight, is also very strong.

“It’s about the influence that the story has had on all of us. It’s about true love and finding ‘the one’. It resonates very strongly throughout the play. But if people come expecting a woman in a frock, pumpkins and mice and things like that, they might not find them.”

Another aspect of the story that hasn’t changed is the idea of true love. “It’s about how we want someone who is going to take us, warts and all,” says McElhinney. “A lot of us go through a lot of pains to cover up what we think are our flaws, but they’re actually what make us interesting. It’s through revealing the hidden parts of ourselves that we achieve real intimacy. I guess it’s watching these two people who aren’t cool finding acceptance in each other.

“I think what Matt has done so beautifully is that he’s created the fairytale, the myth and the magic of everyday things. It’s possible to have a fairy story in the real world.”

SeeCinderellaatBelvoir Street TheatrefromThursday November 13 to Sunday December 7, tickets online.

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