Add MS 83090

Eleanor Farjeon Papers. Vol. xiv (ff. 191). ‘The Glass Slipper’; 27 Aug. 1943, [1943/1944]. Mostly typewritten. Play based on the fairytale Cinderella, written by Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon with music by Clifton Parker. The play was commissioned and produced by Robert Donat at the St. James’s Theatre, London, in Dec. 1944 and was revived the following Christmas season. For the script of the radio programme, ‘How We Came to Write “The Glass Slipper”’, see Add. 83155. For the copy of the play submitted to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, titled ‘The Tale of Cinderella’, and related correspondence, see LCP 1944/34 and LC Corr. 5881. For correspondence relating to a proposed production by Laurence Olivier Productions Ltd. of ‘The Glass Slipper’ in Dec. 1950 and to a proposed film adaptation, see the Laurence Olivier Papers, Add. 80045. For further material relating to the production of ‘The Glass Slipper’, see The Papers of Robert Donat at the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. This includes original watercolour costume designs by Hugh Stevenson (FRD1/5) and also includes correspondence between Robert Donat and Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon relating to the genesis of the play, to the 1944 and 1945 productions, to a proposed New York production by Jane Douglas and to Laurence Olivier Productions Ltd’s acquisition of the film rights (FRD1/1/146 and FRD1/1/147). A further folder contains letters from Eleanor Farjeon to Robert Donat relating to changes to the show and a substantial commentary by Eleanor Farjeon on a performance in Jan. 1946. For details of papers relating to ‘The Glass Slipper’ in the Robert Donat Papers, see A Guide to Special Collections: The John Rylands University Library of Manchester (1999) and the archive catalogue: Papers of Robert Donat: 1881-1997 (2001). For programmes, photographs and other ephemera relating to the London productions, as well as to a 1947 production at the Little Theatre, Nottingham, see the University of Bristol Theatre Collection. Published as The Glass Slipper: A Fairy Tale with Music (1945) and as a prose version illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard (1955).

1. ff. 1-190. Draft with [italics]autograph[/italics] revisions; [1943/1944].

2. f. 191. Letter from Robert Donat; 27 Aug. 1943.