The princess and the pea

based on H.C. Andersen
The Princess and the Pea
adapted by Rainer Lewandowski
ages 5 and up

How do you recognize a princess? You put a pea under the mattress of her bed. If she feels the pea in her back when she sleeps, she is a princess.

But let's start the story in a kingdom where a young princess is to be married off. She refuses and flees. After weeks on the road, to make matters worse, she is caught in a violent storm and seeks refuge in a castle on the road. In this castle lives a young prince with his father, the king and a steward. While the king indulges in fencing and wants to make his son into a martial general, the prince is more of a romantic. He wants to become a poet. As there is no wife in the house, the king urgently wants to marry off his son. However, the prince only wants to marry a real, genuine princess whom he loves with all his heart. None of the previous suitors have suited him.
Now a young girl knocks at the castle, she is in distress and wants to be admitted. The prince is immediately attracted to her and the young girl is also extremely taken with the prince. She assures him that she is a princess, but she is not believed and is forced to work as a domestic servant.

Then one night the test comes: the young woman sleeps in a chamber on a pile of old mattresses with a pea underneath. It hurts her back all night and she can't sleep. Now it's clear to everyone: this must be a princess!

A story about a young woman who makes her own decision about her marriage and takes her life into her own hands.