Created from August 2021 to September 2022, this original webseries communicates the stories of the origins of the fairy tale genre in the French Fairy Tale Salons of the late 17th century through the fictionalised dramatic lives of the most significant Salonnieres, D’Aulnoy, Murat, and De La Force, and some of the fairy tales they wrote.
Today we have used technology, research, and performance to bring to life the origins of fairy tales through behind the scenes gossip between the Salonniere characters in recorded Zoom dialogues and video clips of their fairy tale performances on the AFTS YouTube channel.
Meet our Salonnieres –
Alyssa Curtayne, storyteller, Ring Leader of the Perth Fairy Tale Ring, and academic, currently researching Charlotte Rose Caumont De La Force for her Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Deakin University. wjp enacts De La Force’s romantic life, and performs some of her stories – Green and Blue, Fairer Than a Fairy, The Good Woman, and most famously, Persinette, the story which became known as Rapunzel.
Eliane Morel, writer, actor, producer, and singer of cabaret and opera, continues to perform her award-winning show ‘Disenchanted: A Cabaret of Twisted Fairy Tales’ which plays with the character of Marie Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, the Baroness D’Aulnoy, the leader of the fairy tale writers. Eliane performs some D’Aulnoy’s stories – The Ram, The White Cat (which you might know from the ballet of Sleeping Beauty), and Belle-Belle, which the AFTS explored in September 2020.
Jo Henwood, Storyteller, Tour Guide, and President, Ring Maiden and co founder of the Australian Fairy Tale Society is a museum theatre creative, and workshop leader on literature, history, creative writing, folklore, and storytelling. As Henriette-Julie de Murat, most scandalous of the scandalous Salonnieres, she performs The Savage, The Pig King, The Isle of Magnificence, and The Turbot, re telling these stories, just as Murat re told stories she’d found in Straparola.
Our original web series ‘Salonline’ depicts the French Fairy Tale Salons of the late 17th century and the origins of the fairy tale genre.
Meet the most significant Salonnieres: Baroness D’Aulnoy, Henriette-Julie de Murat, and Charlotte Rose Caumont De La Force, through fictionalised dramatic tellings of their lives, and performances of their tales.
Learn more about our performers Alyssa Curtayne, Eliane Morel and Jo Henwood at the Salonline announcement.
Visit the AFTS YouTube channel to view the 13 episode web series for free.
Australian Fairy Tale Society 