"at its heart is the idea that love and goodness will always prevail" - Adam Peck on Cinderella: A Fairytale

We're delighted to bring a brand-new production of the Olivier Award-nominated Cinderella: A Fairytale to Bristol Old Vic as this year's Christmas family show.

The production has been on quite a journey since it was first created in Travelling Light's rehearsal room, visiting theatres across the UK and into the West End. Now, 15 years later, it's being reimagined for a new generation, brought to life by a new creative team led by Director Lisa Gregan.

We caught up with co-writer Adam Peck to find out how 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.

The play has had a wonderful life, playing in cities up and down the UK since its conception in 2011. Over the past decade it has played in Edinburgh, Birmingham, London, Lancaster, Bolton and Newcastle. But this year, it is a real delight to see it return home – to Bristol! 

When Nancy Medina approached Sally and I about this new production, we were equally excited and curious about what Bristol Old Vic might bring to the show. Then Nancy suggested that Lisa Gregan direct it. Lisa is my partner, but I’m still not sure to this day, whether Nancy knew that at the time or not. Either way, I’m now just totally thrilled by the prospect of what Lisa and her team will bring to this brand-new production of this timeless tale – of the script we made in Bristol one Christmas-time many moons ago.

[*Some small sections have been rewritten for this 2026 Bristol Old Vic version]