Hans Christian Andersen, author
John Donahue, playwright

34 pgs. 2 female, 3 male +ensemble
Originally produced in CTC's 1970-1971 season
Audience Recommendation: 8+

Hans Christian Andersen's tale of a poor little girl who is trying to sell matches on the coldest day of the year. Ill-clad and shivering, she's afraid to return home empty-handed for fear she'll be beaten. The holiday merry-makers are too engrossed in their own worlds to pay attention to the ragged child as she slowly freezes to death. In an attempt to get warm, the girl lights her matches. With each one she makes a wish and sees visions of worlds known to her only from her dead grandmother's stories, visions of a street carnival, a toy shop, a holiday feast, a skating party, a grand ball and a warm, green meadow. In her final moments, she gets a vision of her grandmother who takes her away to heaven.

“The beauty and lyricism of this show…remains spiritually compelling and more than a little awesome.” –St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch

"A lovely dance to the joy of dreams and the spirit of the season…a warm-hearted and colorful spectacle." - Minneapolis Tribune

Click »here for a PDF excerpt of The Little Match Girl. (Adobe Acrobat is required)

Featured Music includes »
Prokofiev's The Stone Flower and Shostakovich's Ballet Suites