Summary “The Princess and the Pea” by Andersen


The story begins with the fact that a certain prince for a long time could not find a suitable girl for himself, namely, a real princess.

One day, when he was quite desperate, a storm broke out, and a drenched stranger knocked at the palace, claiming that she was a real princess.

The Queen Mother arranged a guest check: she laid her to sleep on 40 mattresses and featherbeds, under which she hid one small pea.

In the morning the girl confessed that she had not closed her eyes all night, as something very much prevented her from sleeping. Only a real princess, in which the noblest blood flows, could be so tender!

Immediately they played a luxurious wedding, and put a pea in the royal museum.

Shadow play. Scenery and characters The stories of the great storyteller were created with candles and read near the flickering fireplace fire. Perhaps, that’s why they associate me with the mysterious play of light and shadow, with a theater

of shadows.

The screen for the shadow theater I arranged in a large square box, cutting out a frame in her bottom and tightening it with tracing paper.

Decorations and static silhouettes of characters I cut out of cardboard and fixed with scotch on wooden skewers for shish kebabs.

The light source behind the screen was a night lamp with a flexible lamp fastening.

Progress of the play On the screen – the silhouette of the castle with a large gate. I slowly push the lock away from the screen plane, pushing it towards the light source. The shadow of the castle becomes more and more, filling the entire screen, and it seems that the audience is approaching the castle and enter under the gate arches.

The castle is removed, and the silhouettes of the king, queen and prince are displayed on the stage. Then the king and the queen “diverge” in different directions and disappear from the scene. It remains only the prince.

In the scene, when the prince chooses a bride (“So he traveled all the world, he was looking for this, but everywhere there was

something wrong, the princesses were full, but whether they were real, he could not recognize it to the end, always with there was something wrong with them… “), several princesses pass before him.

After the words “So he returned home and was very sad: so he wanted a real princess…” the light goes out and lights up only when there is a knock at the door and the king will go to open.

Before the scene, where the Queen prepares a bed for the potential bride of the prince, the light is also extinguished to change the scenery and install new ones.

The queen bends over the bed, and the “tower” of featherbeds and mattresses begins to grow right in front of the viewer. Appearing in the bedroom, the princess puts a ladder to this structure and climbs it. The light goes out again.

In the scene that depicts the next morning, the silhouettes simply move according to the text being read.

At the end of the fairy tale, a showcase with a pea is set in the center of the stage: “… and the pea got into the Kunstkammer, where it can be seen even today, unless one has stolen it.” The light goes out for the last time…

Children just fell in love with the shadow theater and now they come up and show us their own ideas.


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Summary “The Princess and the Pea” by Andersen