"at its heart is the idea that love and goodness will always prevail" | A note from writer Adam Peck
2 Nov 2026
The Bristol Old Vic Christmas show is always something to look forward to, but this year’s Cinderella: A Fairytale has travelled a particularly extraordinary path.
From the Brothers Grimm’s version of the story, to Sally Cookson, Adam Peck and the original company at Tobacco Factory Theatres, and onwards to stages across the country (via an Olivier Award nomination), the story has passed through many creative hands, with each production leaving its own mark along the way. Now, a new Bristol Old Vic company, led by director Lisa Gregan, steps into the rehearsal room to imagine it afresh.
We spoke to original co-creator Adam Peck about where it all began...
It’s been fifteen years since I committed (*the majority of) this script to paper, and I remember it feeling like Christmas every day for the month or so it took to create it. The rehearsal room in Southville was warm and cosy, the kettle was always on, and the sofas at one end of the room a great place to get to know my fellow-collaborators – such a generous, cheerful, caring and careful bunch of people.
It was the first show I ever made with Sally Cookson, my maiden gig with the brilliant Travelling Light Theatre Company, and my first Christmas show! I felt very honoured to be in the rehearsal room every day, laughing, and at the same time agonising, over what could and should be included in our version of the Cinderella story.
We dipped into Charles Perrault’s seventeenth century take on the tale, as well as a little-known Chinese version (that includes a plague and a fish with golden eyes!), but our biggest inspiration was the Brothers Grimm story. It replaced the magic of the Fairy Godmother with birds and a hazel tree, and the centring of nature as a force for good felt legitimate and full of potential for theatre.
We emerged from the rehearsal room after four weeks with Cinderella: A Fairytale and before we knew it it was opening night, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and closing night. It was a joyful experience: one that I think translates thoroughly into our version of a story.
Cinderella: A Fairytale does not shy away from the realities of cruelty, hardship and pain, but it retains at its heart the idea that love and goodness will always prevail.
[*Some small sections have been rewritten for this 2026 Bristol Old Vic version]
