Home / Arts and Entertainment / Craig Revel Horwood Rewrites Fairy Tale Kiss
Craig Revel Horwood Rewrites Fairy Tale Kiss
18 Oct
Summary
- Sleeping Beauty's kiss scene rewritten for consent.
- Prince and princess now meet and kiss before sleep.
- Ugly sisters renamed 'the sisters' due to body-shaming concerns.
Craig Revel Horwood, known for his role on Strictly Come Dancing, has updated his Christmas production of Sleeping Beauty to ensure the Prince's kiss is consensual. He discussed the changes at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, noting that the "woke thing really has gone brilliantly well."
The revision addresses the traditional plot point where a prince kisses an unconscious princess. Horwood's production now introduces the couple earlier, allowing them to meet and fall in love, thus making their kiss a consensual act before the princess succumbs to the curse.
Further adaptations include renaming Cinderella's "ugly sisters" to "the sisters" to prevent jokes about appearance and body-shaming. Horwood also mentioned increased caution regarding grotesque makeup and behavior in pantomimes.
Horwood will play the villain Carabosse for the first time in the Bristol Hippodrome production of Sleeping Beauty, running from December 4, 2026, to January 3, 2027. His book, 'The Book of Panto,' published on October 8, explores the history of the theatrical tradition.
