Sleeping Beauty Acrostic Synopsis
Sleeping Beauty by Roy Hudd and Patrick Fyffe
Theatre Royal Bath, 1995
Sweet music and laughter fill the palace as the whole of Nursery Rhyme Land turn out to celebrate the christening of the new royal baby – Princess Aurora. Meadowsweet, Queen of the Fairies, and her colourful underlings bestow the generous blessings of beauty, wisdom and goodness upon the child.
Lackaday, the bad fairy Toadflax then bursts into the palace and marches up to the royal cot. She is furious – everyone in fairyland had been invited to this joyful day except her. Seeking revenge, she bestows her own special gift – that before the Princess’s eighteenth birthday is over, she’ll prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Devastated, the King and Queen order that all spinning wheels be burnt and all pins and needles be destroyed. They set about the painstaking task of protecting their baby from all possible harm.
Eighteen years have passed, and though now an orphan, Princess Aurora has survived so far. It is the eve of the fateful eighteenth birthday and her guardians, Lord Chamberlain, Nurse and Muddles, are organising the celebrations for the next day. Aurora goes to bed guarded for the last time by Meadowsweet. The Princess can’t wait until tomorrow is over, when she will at last be free of her curse.
Eventually, after a long and restless night, the big day arrives. Aurora is following the clues left by Muddles to find her birthday presents. Secretly Toadflax enters and, unobserved, she swaps a clue for one of her own.
Princess Aurora finds the note, and innocently follows the instructions. Arriving on the roof, she meets Toadflax, who somewhat strangely gives her curtains as a present. However, they need a little more work done, so Toadflax invites Aurora to a room in the attic where she has a spinning wheel. The Princess begins to spin the thread, pricks her finger, screams and falls to the ground.
In response to the scream, the Princess’s guardians rush to her assistance, but they are too late. The only chance to save the Princess is for Meadowsweet to try and alter the curse. Instead of dying, the Princess and all at the palace will sleep for a hundred years. The spell can only be broken by the awakening kiss of a Prince. Toadflax makes things harder still by growing a forest of thorns around the palace, so the Princess will never be found.
Now, a hundred years have passed and the handsome young Prince Florizel is being summoned for the royal hunt. Being a kind-hearted prince, he hides the fox, letting him go when all the hunters are out of sight. Seeing this gentle act, meadowsweet realises that he is just the man to wake Princess Aurora.
Getting him to agree to the challenge proves harder than she expected. Nobody, including the Prince, has ever believed that the story of Sleeping Beauty is true. Using a little bit of persuasive magic, Meadowsweet gives the doubting Prince a glimpse of the sleeping Aurora. One look is enough, the Prince is now in love. So, armed with King Arthur’s legendary sword Excalibur, Prince Florizel sets off in search of the dormant palace.
But Toadflax is prepared. Calling up all her wicked sorcery, she challenges the Prince with everything she can throw at him, but the brave Prince presses on. Fighting his way through the thorns, he eventually reaches the palace. He finds the sleeping Princess and kisses her. One kiss is all it takes, Aurora wakes up instantly and, seeing the Prince, immediately falls in love.
Everyone in the palace is awake and busy. The royal engagement party is taking place. Princess Aurora sits next to a gypsy fortune teller, a carefully disguised Toadflax. Predicting a life of flying around the palace, Toadflax transforms the astonished Princess into a dove and, grabbing the bird, escapes triumphantly.
A rescue plan is quickly hatched and the Prince and Meadowsweet set off on the long and perilous journey to Toadflax’s lair, followed by Muddles, Nurse and Lord Chamberlain.
Under the cover of darkness, the intrepid rescuers are just too late. The wicked Toadflax is about to cook the dove! However, help is at hand in the unlikely shape of an electricity man. Toadflax has not been paying her bills, so her supply has been cut off.
The power of love is stronger than evil, so Aurora is quickly returned to her old self again. The defeated Toadflax promises to behave herself from now on. Nurse and Lord Chamberlain realise their love for each other, and the Prince and Princess celebrate their reunion.
Yet more celebrations are on the way, the Prince and the Princess are at last married, and with all their troubles now over, they live happily ever after.