Any Noel Streatfeild fans here?

[JFDIYOLO]

I love her books about children on stage, at Madame Fidolia's Academy - have done since I was very young and Mum first handed me Ballet Shoes and The Painted Garden.

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The renaming even ruined that lovely moment in You've Got Mail where Kathleen's recommending Ballet Shoes through her tears - I just get so cross when she starts wanging on about Skating Shoes and Theatre Shoes!

Yes, me! Just booked tickets for Ballet Shoes this Christmas too at the National Theatre.

@WWGD "Yes, me! Just booked tickets for Ballet Shoes this Christmas too at the National Theatre."

Me too! Adult dd and I are looking forward to it sooo much!!

I actually saw another play earlier this year by the person who has adapted Ballet Shoes for stage and it was so good that I would see anything she had written which fills me with hope for Ballet Shoes.

I saw the posters - I’ll be really interested to see the reviews.

Oh I am now wondering if DD and I don't go at Christmas-my initial excitement was tempered by concern about the adaptation and decided it would annoy me too much and the fear that I would stand up in the middle of the play and correct them is real.

Has it actually opened?

@WWGD Out of interest what was the other play?

Yes that's the problem-I'd like to see reviews before booking...

@MrsMitford3 Alma Mater. The playwright is called Kendall Feaver. I think she is Australian.

I've booked for me and eldest kid to go to the matinee on 18 December. I'm keeping everything crossed that it stays true to the book (and not simplify and dumb down like the Emma Watson BBC version!)

I actually liked the Emma Watson version [ducks]

Recently partner bought me the 70s video adaptation of Ballet Shoes - although there were changes, SO much better than the vague Emma Watson version.

Their Madame Fidolia was perfect. Elegant and austere.

And I'm enraged to see that at the National Theatre production she's going to be played by A MAN. For fuck sake. Another strong older female character given to a bloke.

I used to have the video of the 70s version. Madam Edith from 'Allo 'Allo was Madame Fidola and absolutely beautiful at the part.

The children were younger than the more recent version, which worked better for the whole thing. It was dated in the typical BBC Sunday serial way, but stuck to the story nicely. I think my main complaint would be it should have been longer!
Edited to say:
It's on Youtube

Have just ordered the 1970's dvd.

Very excited!

The 1970s one is on YouTube as well

Oops, sorry didn't spot the above post!

This has really put me off seeing it. I know it sounds a bit silly but I might sell the tickets or gift it. What a shame. The whole point of the book is that it's focused on women!

Oh, fucking hell. But that does seem increasingly typical of the National. I definitely won’t be going then.

oh no. I have tickets too, and was really looking forward to a good adaptation. Madame Fidolia is such an important and strong character, and being a woman is so much a part of what she does - running a school like that, being a woman able to make a career in her older years, etc.

I’ve just been looking. A bearded bloke is playing ‘GUM / Fidolia’, which makes me wonder whether they’re turning her into a male character or sticking a dress on him & expecting people not to notice.

That has also completely put me off.

I was thinking that it would be a lovely outing for DD and me but I am not buying tickets to see a man replace a vital female character!!!!
Very foolish decision imho

Harking back to Streatfeild's realism, does anyone else know the anthology she edited, By Special Request? I read it in the school library when I was a child, and the bit that really stuck was the introduction, where she lamented the lack of realistic writing about stage and ballet. She wrote a couple of send-ups for it - The Pride of St Polyanthus was aimed at the school stories where the star of the Sixth leaves for a dazzling career in writing or theatre. Her Claudia appears at the OG reunion thin and shabby, and barely recognisable after a year of the realities of stage life. The Little Pavlova describes Janey Flig, victim of a substandard ballet teacher and deluded parents, and that has a really unkind feel to it. It seemed vicious even when I read it at school.

I've read By Special Request.

I don't think it was meant to be so much cruel as not giving children a false idea that they could fall in love with ballet at 15, and immediately be recognised as a major talent despite never having done it before and being the star performer at the end of the first term. Which was a fairly typical story of the era.
She was trying to get across that it takes a lot of hard work, dedication etc.

I recognise the description, so must have read it long long ago. I remember being a bit taken aback by the dose of reality, but seeing it for what it was.

I too have tickets.

But right at the very back as I am cheap! So I bay not spot that a bloke is playing gum and Madame f.
Though won't it be more likely someone off stage /in shadow being Madame f than a man on stage playing a woman? Or they'd make them mr f if they were lacking in cast members and people had to double up (though then just stick a beard on a lady actor to be gum)

I checked the cast and it's 2 males playing gum and fidola (no Madame so now a male character)

Maybe just done to lack of cast available in the company? So people have to do dual roles and there are already many women in the cast already who would be on stage as same time as fidola. We shall see how it works in practice.

I must see that. I loved Dame Eileen Atkins as Fidolia in the emma watson one though!