From the Hans Christian Andersen original story written in 1844 in Danish, translated by M R James, adapted for the stage by Laila Choat-France especially for The Fisher Youth Theatre Group ‘Fledglings’ (9-13-year-olds).

A beautiful, bitter-sweet, magical story with music, about friendship, between a little boy, Kai and a little girl, Gerda who are neighbours and who love each other like brother and sister.

It is perhaps the most celebrated of all his fairy tales. An Evil Troll finds a magic glass which magnifies ugly and evil things and shrinks good and beautiful things. When his Lesser Troll helpers take the mirror up to the heavens to see what the angels look like in it, they drop it, and it smashes into millions of little pieces. These shards upon the earth now find their way into people’s eyes and hearts, and are made into windows and mirrors, which still carry the same unpleasant magnifying power. Kai gets a shard in his eye which sinks into his heart and changes him.

Unlike typical fairytales of that period, it is Gerda that goes on a quest to save him.