One thing Melly Still and Tim Supple cannot be accused of is sanitising the often cruel and gruesome quality of childhood fairy tales in this dazzlingly inventive adaptation of Carol Ann Duffy’s retelling of eight childhood favourites.
From the Emperor’s New Clothes to Beauty and the Beast, it’s interesting to see how much food plays a part in many well-loved stories, as we are taken on a fun and educational ride, which has more than its share of horrors and bloodshed too.
I am not sure how everybody in the suggested eight-plus age group would take to the story of Bluebeard, which involves a rather grisly staging of the mysterious wife-collector’s menagerie of dead spouses in his castle vaults. But as the American professor Jack Zipes says in the programme notes, fairy tales have always been “a means of conquering terrors through metaphor”. Tell that to your nightmare-ravaged child.
Still, there is so much to love in this show, not least some brilliant ensemble acting. Jason Thorpe - who I have seen in a few productions and who seems close to genius when it comes to clowning around on stage - is especially good, managing to play both a cow and a naughty dog with real aplomb. David Price’s music is also fantastically evocative - haunting, melodic and as uplifting as the production as a whole.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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