Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the
future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
Part of the Innovation Provocation: Transnational Avant-Gardes Season
This summer see The Teapot Prince, a lost eighteenth-century ballet, performed in the fairy-tale grounds of Waddesdon before exploring the Manor after-hours.
Adult £32, Child £16
Book your ticket here
Ticket includes access to the Manor’s west galleries & a talk by the ballet company
Be enchanted by this contemporary reimagining of the lost eighteenth-century French Ballet des Porcelaines – The Teapot Prince, bringing to life a story of magic, desire and exotic entanglement. Originally staged in a château near Paris, this is the first production of the ballet in nearly 300 years. See it performed against the fairy-tale backdrop of Waddesdon Manor this summer.
Created by Meredith Martin, professor of art history at New York University, and Phil Chan, choreographer and co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, in collaboration with The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities (TORCH) and the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
The Teapot Prince is based on an Orientalist fairy tale about a sorcerer who lives on a ‘Blue Island’ and transforms anyone who dares to trespass into porcelain cups, vases, and other wares. When the sorcerer turns the eponymous prince into a teapot, his lover, the princess comes to his rescue…
The original Ballet des Porcelaines can be seen as an allegory for the aggressive European desire to know and steal the secrets of Chinese porcelain manufacture. In the new version, the narrative is flipped. The main protagonists are now Chinese, the Sorcerer, a mad European porcelain collector, modelled on Augustus II the Strong (1670-1733), King of Poland, elector of Saxony, and founder of Meissen, the first European manufacturer to succeed in making true porcelain.
After the performance, you’ll have exclusive access to the Manor’s west galleries housing renowned collections of 18th-century porcelain and there will be a talk by the ballet company.
Find out more about the Tea Pot Prince project here.
