Little Red Riding Hood

Published Thursday 28 February 2008 at 10:50 by Jon Holliday

A little girl dressed in a red cloak sets off to visit her grandma through the wolf-infested forest. Sounds familiar? Just another fairytale? No. This version is somewhat darker. On the way, Ruby is abducted, then rescued by wolves only to find - well, it’s enough to say many unexpected events unfold in this creepy wood.

Ian Yeoman’s imaginative staging for an all-family audience works on several levels. Poetic interludes are shot through with eerie mystery and surreal happenings.

Dreamlike sequences teeter on the edge of a nightmare grimmer than Grimm.

Naomi Doyle gives an edgy, sensitive portrayal of Ruby without a trace of saccharin sweetness, though more projection would be an improvement. Chris Batten as her abductor commendably makes no attempt to soften his brutal character. The trio of wolves are a constant delight, with Danie Croft, Olwen Medi and Xeni Berisha conversing in a wolverine language all their very own. They also double various roles, contributing to the scary atmosphere, which no doubt evolved from improvisation in rehearsal, though this became rather slow and self-indulgent at times.

The unusual setting is by Julia Curtis, the songs and effective soundscape by Dan Lawrence.

Little Red Riding Hood, on a six-week 25-venue tour of Wales and England, is another worthy achievement by Theatr Powys of Llandrindod Wells, which has been presenting professional drama and theatre in education tours for 32 years.