"Rumpelstiltskin" Pan Pow Productions stage performance at Monash University, 1974

Dublin Core

Title

"Rumpelstiltskin" Pan Pow Productions stage performance at Monash University, 1974

Subject

Alexander Theatre, child, fairytale, gold, Grimm Brothers, king, knights, medieval costume, medieval dress, Monash University, Monash, university, Pan Pow Productions, performers, play, queen, Rumpelstiltskin, spinning wheel, straw, theatre, theatre group, theatrical production, Victoria

Description

A Photograph of Act 1, Scene 4 from a 1974 stage performance of "Rumpelstiltskin" at the Alexander Theatre, Monash University, featuring Beverley Gardiner as Gretchen and Penelope Richards and Paul Kennedy as the two knights.

“Rumpelstiltskin” is a children’s fairytale by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. It was first written in 1812 and expanded in 1857. It tells the story of a Miller’s daughter who is forced to spin straw into gold on threat of her life for three successive nights. A little man appears and offers to spin the straw for reward. On the first night she gives him her necklace, on the second her ring but on the third she has nothing to give and promises him her first born child. Years later, after she has married the king and has her first child, the man appears and gives the queen three days to guess his name or he will take her child. After two days of guessing to no avail, the queen’s messenger (according to the 1857 version) stumbles upon the man dancing and singing in a house in the forest. The song he sings mentions his name, which the queen correctly reveals the following day. Although no date is given in the tale, the characters - involving a king, a queen and royal knights - and the importance of the spinning wheel are often assumed to indicate a medieval setting.

Creator

Anon.

Source

Monash University Archives

Publisher

Monash University

Date

1974

Rights

Monash University

Format

Hyperlink