Theater: 'The Salonniéres' Premieres In Fall This Year (Greater Boston Stage Company)

Poster by J. Weston Lewis

Doesn't this poster look amazing?! Fairy tale writers, storytellers and revolutionaries make for a great lens to view this period in history and we're guessing d'Aulnoy will feature... (please let it be so!) What a wonderful concept for a play. (We can't believe this is the first we've heard of this play from 2015!) The conversations and storytelling in a fairy tale salon, layered with all the social and political intrigue and chaos of the time, would be fascinating to watch. We wish we were local to check this out. 

Here's the info:

THE SALONNIÉRES

October 25-November 11, 2018

World Premiere

by Liz Duffy Adams

Directed by Weylin Symes

In pre-Revolutionary Paris, a young girl is promised in marriage to a Duke to pay off her father’s debts. She flees to the literary salon of her late mother’s friends: aristocratic women who conceal radical politics within reinvented folk tales. Which of them is her fairy godmother, and which the cruel stepmother? Is the Duke a Prince Charming or a Beast? And is the maid just a maid, or the hero of a story none of them knows they are in?

Here's a different description from New Plays Exchange (where the GBSC found the play!):

The Salonniéres  by Liz Duffy Adams

Cast: 5

Genre: comedy, drama, period, political

Keyword: revolution, feminism, Fairy Tales, France, strong female leads 

In pre-Revolutionary Paris, Madeleine, a girl fresh from the convent, is promised in marriage to an older nobleman to pay off her father’s debts. She flees to the literary salon of her late mother’s friends, aristocratic women who conceal radical politics within reinvented folk tales. When her promised husband shows up too, the women must use their wits to save Madeleine. But in the end, the maid Françoise is revealed as the real hero of a story they didn’t realize they were in.

And the recommendations from New Plays Exchange (NPX):

• Jordan Elizabeth Henry:
  29 Apr. 2018“ This wonderful period piece blew me away with its accessibility, its honoring of story, its depth of character, its crazy-high stakes, and its charm. The ending made me want to stand up and shout; I had fiery grateful feminist tears in my eyes. THE SALONNIERES is full of humor, horror, and badass women. I'm obsessed. ” 

  Kristen Palmer:
  22 Oct. 2017“ This play is so sharp. I got to hear it read recently and it soared off the page and into my head. It's a wonderful play for the moment - and puts the male canon firmly into the hands of the too long over looked women of its era - with the revolution rumbling just outside the door. ”

This is one play we'll be watching for reviews of. (And if you're in Boston and want to go in exchange for a review, please let us know. We might be able to help you get there...) 

Check out the 2018/2019 season line-up at The Greater Boston Stage Company HERE.

We Are Reading: 'Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned: Enchanted Stories From the French Decadent Tradition' (Oddly Modern Fairy Tales Series)

All images in this post are by Ray Caesar, (website) with the exception of the journal cover

"... enchanting yet troubling..."

It's easy to see why Fairy Tales For the Disillusioned is capturing rave reviews. Our cultural climate is ripe for such a round of stories and, as the series from which it appears states, these are, indeed Oddly Modern Fairy Tales.

Note: Special mention should be made here of eminent fairy tale authority Jack Zipes, who champions, and is Series Editor, for the Oddly Modern Fairy Tales, of which this book is the latest addition. "Oddly Modern Fairy Tales is dedicated to publishing unusual literary fairy tales produced mainly during the first half of the twentieth century. International in scope, the series includes new translations, surprising and unexpected tales by well-known writers and artists, and uncanny stories by gifted yet neglected authors. Postmodern before their time, the tales in Oddly Modern Fairy Tales transformed the genre and still strike a chord." (From the series introduction.)

To put it in very frank terms, these tales are the cynical and morose fan-fiction of largely angst-y fairy tale lovers. The characters are often familiar. Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Blue Beard make multiple appearances, as do familiar sounding fairies (of which there are many, as is more typical of French fairy tales than others) but their stories are not familiar and comforting and happily ever after is not only elusive, it's often become 'extinct'. Clearly written by those drawn to, and who deeply love, many things about fairy tales (and, perhaps obviously, the French incarnation of those), these aren't so much revisionist as just disenchanted (the editors say these tales "might better be called perversions rather than revisions"). Fairies feel redundant, true love means nothing and right and wrong depend where you stand, if they mean anything at all. Giving meaning to a series of events - even those with wonder - is pointless. Despite the presence of 'magic' there is often no wonder, or meaning, at all - which is the point. Disillusioned, as per the title, is, in fact, the perfect word to describe it; the tales as well as the writers.

Charles Baudelaire, one of "creative luminaries" of this collection (and the decadent movement in general) would, today, be categorized as "emo: "What do I care if you are good? Be beautiful and be sad!" but also more than a little "goth": “All that is beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation. Crime, the taste for which the human animal draws from the womb of his mother, is natural in its origins. Virtue, on the contrary, is artificial and supernatural, since gods and prophets were necessary in every epoch and every nation to teach virtue . . . the good is always the product of some art.” (Charles Baudelaire, from “Eloge du Maquillage”)

For those interested in exploring further, it's worth looking into the publication of the literary journal The Yellow Book (see image below) - the gaudy color automatically connecting it with illicit French novels of the time. Though the first authors and artists were generally much more conservative and non-radical in nature than readers anticipated, the public association was almost prescient with regard for how the journal developed.

From Wikipedia:

Upon its publication, Oscar Wilde dismissed The Yellow Book as "not yellow at all". In The Romantic '90s, Richard Le Gallienne, a poet identified with the New Literature of the Decadence, described The Yellow Book as the following: "The Yellow Book was certainly novel, even striking, but except for the drawings and decorations by Beardsley, which, seen thus for the first time, not unnaturally affected most people as at once startling, repellent, and fascinating, it is hard to realize why it should have seemed so shocking. But the public is an instinctive creature, not half so stupid as is usually taken for granted. It evidently scented something queer and rather alarming about the strange new quarterly, and thus it almost immediately regarded it as symbolic of new movements which it only partially represented".

It would be worth mentioning, at this juncture, that movements like these have a tendency to be "savagely attacked" by the critics of their time, yet championed by the passionate younger generation of artists, writers. These tales are an apt example of this. (The rear of the volume lists the authors with brief biographical notes and it's clear a common thread connects them all - lifestyles and interests both.)

It's too easy to say this movement of the 'decadent tradition' should be belittled or considered not to have literary value. Clearly it does (have literary value) - at least from this distance in time and space. The tales are a (now recognized) relevant reflection of the time period, and political and social discomfort and unrest that they came out of. They prove a fascinating counterpoint to the tales of Perrault and the eventual forty-one volumes of tales included in the salon 'workshopped' Cabinet des Fées. Changing times proved both exciting and fearful, (then as now) and even as more options, independence and opportunities were made possible, people (and fairies) began to feel displaced. Science, technology and education are seen to be the downfall of fairies - and of Wonder.

(A great overview of more of the types of stories and their connection to the postmodern fairy tale writings of Margaret Atwood, AS Byatt and Angela Carter, can be found in The Guardian's review by Alison Flood HERE.)

During the time period, however, such writing could easily have been described (read "looked down on") as indulgent and low-brow, which is also true. Just like the paintings of Ray Ceasar, an artist who blends Victorian aesthetics with Rococo and a dark, and yes, decadent, underbelly (his more mild paintings shown in this post), the tales aren't generally considered "high art". The average person is drawn to them, only to realize there is also something disturbing upon closer inspection. Ultimately the tales, just like Ceasar's paintings are indulgent, whiny and ultimately frustrating. From what we understand, the writers were the equivalent of somewhat privileged and inexperienced university students, impassioned with ideals, brilliant and keenly observant yet disillusioned and outspoken about their lot in life, often leading to an indulgent and decadent life style of keen unhappiness - a double-edged sword. But even as the reader swings between delight and annoyance, such a collection isn't easy to dismiss.

The general response to the book has been one of delight, and the tantalizing forms these tales take are made clear in the description: The wolf is tricked by Red Riding Hood into strangling her grandmother and is subsequently arrested. Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella do not live happily ever after. And the fairies are saucy, angry, and capricious. ...In these stories, characters puncture the optimism of the naive, talismans don't work, and the most deserving don't always get the best rewards. The fairies are commonly victims of modern cynicism and technological advancement, but just as often are dangerous creatures corrupted by contemporary society. The collection underlines such decadent themes as the decline of civilization, the degeneration of magic and the unreal, gender confusion, and the incursion of the industrial. Clearly something of that ilk draws readers and writers today, but it is worth contemplating why. Why are we drawn to the "deliciously cruel"?

Just like the painfully annoying fifth book of the Harry Potter series, (The Order of the Phoenix) in which the 15 year old "hero" is perpetually petulant to the point of alienating everyone around him (and many readers), it's out of that same restlessness, fear and frustration that one of the best aspects of the series is born: Dumbledore's Army. (In which a group of students educate and arm themselves in secret, in case they need to rise up in their own defense - which they do indeed have to do.)

Does it justify the attitude? Absolutely not.

Is it understandable? Absolutely it is.

It's not wholly unlike where the Western world has revealed itself to be right now - something which gives this volume even more cause for consideration.

One of the Editors, Gretchen Schultz, stated:

“There’s a certain appeal today for literature having a cynical edge,” she said. “The theme of disillusionment, at this moment in the US election cycle, is timely. And more broadly, the social and political turmoil at the fin de siècle in France, which contributed to the decadent ethos and its reimagining of classic fairytales, offers some parallels to our world that are worthy of contemplation.”

It should be noted, this interview statement was made ahead of both the 2016 US Election results and the still developing fallout of the UK "Brexit" issue.

But the tale of these tales - fittingly - doesn't end there. We choose to end the review by quoting from the introduction by Editors Gretchen Schultz and Lewis Seifert:

At the turn of the twentieth century, one critic optimistically predicted that after their nineteenth century decline, fairy tales would regain visibility, prompted by science itself. Were not electric lighting, horseless carriages, urban underground railways, and moving pictures all cause for marvel?
... As the twentieth century dawned,

fairies and genies began once again to show themselves to people. The first automobiles they caught sight of convinced then that the prophecy had been fulfilled. They believed that women travelling in automobiles were fairies come to revisit the realms they once inhabited. (Goyau 18)  

Technology might just have given new life to the "last fairy".

Additional note of interest to fairy tale folk and scholars:

Many of the fairy tales in this volume are printed in English for the first time.

TALES [* denotes those translated & published in English for the 1st time]

Fairies' GiftsThe Fairies of FranceDreaming BeautyIsolina / IsolinThe Way to HeavenAn Unsuitable Guest*The Three Good Fairies*The Last FairyThe Lucky Find*The Wish Granted, Alas!The Suitors of Princess MimiLiette's Notions*On the Margins of Perrault's Fairy Tales: The White Rabbit and the Four-Leaf Clover*The Ogresses*Fairy Morgane's Tales: Nocturne II*Bluebeard's Little WifeThe Green She-DevilCiceMandosianeFairy Tales for the Disillusioned*The Living Door Knocker The Mortis*Sleeping Beauty Didn't Wake UpPrincess of the Red LiliesPrincess Snowflower*Mandosiane in CaptivityPrince CharmingThe Story of the Prince of Valandeuse*The Pleasant Surprise*The Last Fairy*The Seven Wives of BluebeardThe Story of the Duchess of Cicogne and of Monsieur de BoulingrinThe 28-Kilometer Boots*Cinderella Arrives by AutomobileCinderella Continued, or the Rat and the Six LizardsCinderella, the Humble and Haughty Child*

Book in the Works: "Mother Goose Refigured"

Consider this an official 'heads-up" from us, for your fairy tale studies and folklore libraries:

Coming in November from Wayne State University Press is a fascinating new book on a topic that has had quite a bit of attention in the past coupe of years. It's titled Mother Goose Refigured, written by Christine A. Jones, and, unlike most people's impressions that Mother Goose is a nursery rhyme figure only, the character and archetype often made appearances alongside fairy tales as well, especially in the French fairy tale salon era, of which Charles Perrault was a member. His collection of fairy tales was actually titled Stories or Tales from Times Past; or, Tales of Mother Goose (1697). This book looks at the translations and adaptations of this volume and how that affected the tales themselves.

About the author, who is no newbie to critical writing on fairy tales (we still have our eye on Feathers, Paws, Fins and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts!):

Christine A. Jones is a specialist of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France at the University of Utah with interests in the luxury trades and the fairy tale. She has authored Shapely Bodies: The Image of Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century France as well as numerous articles on trade history. With folklore scholar Jennifer Schacker, she has coedited Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives and Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts, illustrated by Lina Kusaite (Wayne State University Press, 2015).

And we must mention: we adore the cover with Red in the wolf-en forest!

Here's the write-up. Included are two images from the book:

Charles Perrault published Histoires ou Contes du temps passé ("Stories or Tales of the Past") in France in 1697 during what scholars call the first "vogue" of tales produced by learned French writers. The genre that we now know so well was new and an uncommon kind of literature in the epic world of Louis XIV’s court. This inaugural collection of French fairy tales features characters like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Puss in Boots that over the course of the eighteenth century became icons of social history in France and abroad. Translating the original Histoires ou Contes means grappling not only with the strangeness of seventeenth-century French but also with the ubiquity and familiarity of plots and heroines in their famous English personae. 

From its very first translation in 1729, Histoires ou Contes has depended heavily on its English translations for the genesis of character names and enduring recognition. This dependability makes new, innovative translation challenging. For example, can Perrault’s invented name "Cendrillon" be retranslated into anything other than "Cinderella"? And what would happen to our understanding of the tale if it were? Is it possible to sidestep the Anglophone tradition and view the seventeenth-century French anew? Why not leave Cinderella alone, as she is deeply ingrained in cultural lore and beloved the way she is? Such questions inspired the translations of these tales in Mother Goose Refigured, which aim to generate new critical interest in heroines and heroes that seem frozen in time. The book offers introductory essays on the history of interpretation and translation, before retranslating each of the Histoires ou Contes with the aim to prove that if Perrault’s is a classical frame of reference, these tales nonetheless exhibit strikingly modern strategies. 

Designed for scholars, their classrooms, and other adult readers of fairy tales, Mother Goose Refigured promises to inspire new academic interpretations of the Mother Goose tales, particularly among readers who do not have access to the original French and have relied for their critical inquiries on traditional renderings of the tales.

Event: Monash Fairy Tale Salon to Explore Fairy Tale Migrations

On Monday, June 9th, Belinda Calderone, chief organizer of the Monash Fairy Tale Salon (an academic-based fairy tale salon in Australia, inspired by the old French gatherings such as were frequented by fairy tale luminaries Charles Perrault & Countess d'Aulnoy), will be speaking at the Inaugural AFTS Conference, on the subject of how fairy tales have migrated across lands, with particular attention to those that made the journey to Australia.

The talk, titled Strange Lands: The transportation of European Fairy Tales in to the Australian Landscape, will essentially be a condensed consideration of the subject that will be explored in a special half-day event, later in June with the rest of the Monash Fairy Tale Salon.

When: Sunday June 29, 2014
Where: Caulfield, VIC, Australia

Since the poster is a little small, I'll transcribe the print for you here:

As part of the Glen Elra Storytelling Festival, the Monash Fairy Tale Salon, a staff and postgraduate reading group at Monash University, will be hosting a day exploring fairy tale migrations, with a special focus on Australian tales. The four-hour event will include academic papers as well as fairy tale readings and performances. For the bold at heart, come dressed as your favorite fairy tale character and be in the running to win a prize! This free event is open to anyone who has a love of fairy tales.

Registration for Transporting Tales, is now open. To register, just RSVP to arts-fairytale AT monash DOT edu and they will put you on the list.

In case you missed it, the event is open to ANYONE who loves fairy tales and is FREE! (It would also help if you lived in Victoria, Australia.)

I sincerely wish I could be there and will watch for any reports of the event that I can share with you.

(I need to find an LA-based fairy tale salon stat!)

Green Hill Arts Hosting Multiple Fairy Tale Events (aka I'm Moving to Devon. I Wish)

Actually, I'd settle for a visit during this coming last week of June. At least for starters. You see, Devon (in the UK) is where Green Hill Arts lives and a LOT of fairy tale goodness happens there all year round. The end of this month, however, is particularly tempting. And if I could go but had to choose only one of the special events, I would choose the Women & Fairy Tales talk (poster shown above, info at link).

Here's the event blurb:

Fairy tales, which we now think of as children's stories, were not originally intended for children at all. Only since the 19th century have the complex, dark, sensual or bawdy tales of the oral tradition been collected, edited, and set down in print in the watered-down forms we are most familiar with today: filled with square-jawed princes and passive princesses who invariably end up living "happily ever after." 

But how many modern readers know that in older versions of Sleeping Beauty, the princess wakes up not with a chaste kiss but with the birth of twins after the prince has come and gone again? Or that Red Riding Hood's wolf demands she takes off her clothes, piece by piece, and join him in bed? Or that Rapuzel's witch first learns of the prince's secret visits when Rapunzel's belly swells with pregnancy? 

 In this talk, Terri will explore the strange, surprising history of the world's most familiar stories -- explaining why these stories have such a hold upon her, and why fairy tales still matter today -- while Howard will regale you dark, old versions of the tales that are a far, far cry from Walt Disney....

Or perhaps I'd choose the Coffee with the Artists event, because there's no way you could avoid talking fairy tales with those guys and I can just imagine all the napkin scribbles left over...

A wonderful opportunity to spend time with these three well-renowned artists who will talk about and show some of their work in an informal and intimate setting whilst you enjoy coffee and delicious cake. 

Hazel Brown is painter, illustrator, and bookmaker whose work has been published The Art of Faery and Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters. 

Virginia Lee is a painter, sculptor, and illustrator of The Frog Bride, Persephone, and other children's books. She also worked as a sculptor on the set of the Lord of the Ringsfilms. 

David Wyatt has illustrated numerous books including Peter Pan in Scarlet (the first authorized Peter Pan sequel), the bestselling "Larklight" books by Phillip Reaves, and fantasy classics by JRR Tolkien, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, Brian Jacques, and others. 

Terri Windling will join the coffee morning as the discussion moderator. Terri Windling is a collage artist, folklore scholar and an award winning author of over forty books including ‘The Wood Wife’ and ‘Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells’.

But, no. I really, really want  to hear what Terri has to say about "the strange, dark history of fairy tales as stories for adults..."! I'm hoping (please?) that someone will be recording, taping, transcribing, taking notes, pics - something! - from the event so for those of us who can't go can still participate. In absentia. From the outside. After the fact. But still, I know that anything said will be good fodder for fairy tale brain cells and anything we can do to continue that "17thC French Salon" mentality of talking tales among authors, writers and thinkers, would be fantastic.

You know what? If I were in Devon I'd just go to both: scrub floors, collect dishes - heck, I'd clean puppet orifices! - and listen from the kitchen if I absolutely had to!

Let's just break from my fantasizing for a moment to exclaim over the scrumptiousness of all three Green Hill Arts posters!! If they make prints I'll happily purchase a good sized one for my wall. (Hint, hint.)

But that's not all. There are ongoing Midsummer Mythic Artists exhibitions happening right now through August 7 this year!

Midsummer – Saturday 22nd June – Wednesday 7th AugustWalking “widdershins” (counter-clockwise) is the traditional way to enter the realm of myth and enchantment. Come to Green Hill Arts this summer and let us show you the way... 

Widdershins is an exhibition of art works by a group of celebrated and internationally renowned mythical and fantasy artists. 

Dartmoor’s landscape is steeped in magic and mystery and it is home to many artists whose work is inspired by mythic themes. Widdershins showcases the work of those who live on Dartmoor (or have local connections), but whose paintings, sculptures, books and films are known far beyond: Hazel Brown, Neil Wilkinson Cave, Brian Froud, Wendy Froud, Paul Kidby, Alan Lee, Virginia Lee, Rima Staines, Terri Windling, David Wyatt.
Widdershins explores local legends, world myth, folklore and faery tales in diverse, surprising ways... and although it all starts ‘Once Upon a Time’, it is definitely not for children only. In addition to the exhibition itself, we have a full programme of mythic, magical events for adults and children. It includes artists’ talks, book-signings, storytelling, puppetry, music and much more. 

See? Clearly I should be in Devon.


But Devon isn't the only place where the fairy tale fantastic is happening (though, these few weeks, they definitely have the lion's share). Look what I missed announcing earlier this year from Australia:

Apparently there are fairy tale salons (because conversation and exchanging ideas on fairy tales, is an important part of all these) springing up all over the world!

Some lucky Victorians (that is, people at the Monash University in Victoria, Australia, just had their own salon event in May:
In Fairy Land.

You can see an online catalogue/slideshow of the fairy tale rare books they viewed and discussed HERE.

Even better, though, The Monash Fairy Tale Salon is a regular group! (Do they take penpals? Voip-pals? I want in!)

The event from the year before  is shown at right: >>> (screencap only  - links are not clickable sorry) >>>


And HERE's a brief recap of the event on the Storytelling Australia blog.

Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? I would have been there with bells on if I could. (Where's a Tardis when you need one?)

Oh, for a fairy tale passport that would whisk me to fairy tale salons and events all over the world... *sigh*

I'll leave you with an alternate poster for the exhibitions at Green Hill Arts to inspire you (and perhaps, my passport, to get it's act together in time for the Winter Solstice events... or at least Midsummer next next year!).