La Princesse au petit pois

After travelling the world without finding a suitable match, he returned to his father’s castle despondent. On the night of an apocalyptic storm, a girl––in a terrible state––comes knocking at the door and claims to be a real princess! The old king offers her hospitality. To make sure she’s telling the truth, the queen mother places a pea under a bed of twenty mattresses and twenty duvets. The princess doesn’t get a moment’s sleep all night and is covered in bruises the next morning. Such sensitive skin can only be that of a genuine princess. The prince therefore marries her. As for the pea, it is still on display at the museum.

Hans Christian Andersen, the author
Poor and orphaned at a young age, Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) sought his fortune in Copenhagen at the age of 14. Throughout his life he wrote novels, often inspired by his personal experience. He was also the author of several autobiographies, a voluminous correspondence, and a sizeable diary. However, it was his fairy tales, written over a period of more than forty years, which earned the Danish author worldwide fame. These stories, which for a long time now have been part of world heritage, are characterised by their skilful use of the vernacular, and their subtle descriptions of emotions embedded in the fantastical world of the fairy tale.

Édouard Signolet, the director
After doing university studies and training as an actor, Édouard Signolet staged a series of three Sofia Fredén plays from 2008 at the Théâtre Ouvert:Hand in Hand, Rotten and The Bike. In 2012, he directed Hervé Blutsch’s Gzion at the Lycée Français in New York. As artist in residence at the Théâtre Ouvert for the 2012/2013 season, directing Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s We Who Are Hundred and Pau Miró’s Buffalos. He has also collaborated with the director Jeanne Roth on numerous operas, such as Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Pergolesi’sThe Servant Mistress. He is in charge of the staging of the educational concerts of the Les Siècles orchestra at the Salle Pleyel and the Cité de la Musique. In his view, Andersen’sThe Princess and the Pea offers a magnificent parody of a fairy tale, where appearances are deceptive, and where the moral of the story is but a small thing, as it is given by... a pea.