'Cinderella’s secret' novel turns into play

CAIRO – 15 February 2018: Utopia theatrical troupe will perform “Cinderella’s Secret” play on Romance stage on Friday February 16.

The play is based on “Cinderella’s Secret” novel for the Egyptian author Heba el-Sawah. Through satirical changes to the classic fairy tale of Cinderella, Sawah tries to break many stereotypical concepts to which many generations have been raised up.

The book points out that one of the most misleading concepts always featured in such fairy tales is that the true happiness for any girl is based only on finding prince charming. The novel shows that this is completely irrelevant to reality, according to the book description.

The novel unveils society's deception for females; it convinces them that they won’t be able to meet a special person without joining specific faculties and jobs and owning certain properties.

The play is directed by Mohammed Hafez, founder of Utopia theatrical troupe. Hafez also directed several theatrical plays such as “The Toy”, “Feminist”, “The Clown”, amongst others. It is worth mentioning that Hafez participated in many theatrical performances as an actor.

Utopia previously staged several theaters, performing acts that deliver societal and human messages. Utopia members believe that they represent the rising generation, bearing the responsibility of introducing meaningful theater to it society, according to the cast’s official Facebook page.

They chose the name Utopia, hoping to create a better reality for themselves and for the audience through art.

The troupe refuses presenting plays that merely provide the audience with light jokes, but rather prefer to merge entertainment with intellectuality.

Utopia received several awards in acting, music and directing. They also won the best stage performance in the Silver Jubilee of Zefti Festival, the second place at the Sakia Theater Festival and the second place at the Alexandria International Festival.