GRIMMS - THE FINAL PHASE. To 6 January.
London
GRIMMS - THE FINAL PHASE
by Joanna Volinska and Alistair Green
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 2) To 6 January 2007
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed & Sat 3pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632
www.theambassadors.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 December
Liberties are taken but the result’s energetic and refreshingly original.
Horla theatre company has a unique story-telling style. Midway through some ancient tale we’re likely to come upon a reference to a TV programme. There again, every age has added its own references in retelling traditional stories.
Director Alistair Green has a lively visual eye, even when, as in a Hitchcock-derived burial piece, the white fairy-lights wrapped-around the stage go out for this show’s most macabre story. Elsewhere there’s both serious stuff and fundamental humour: farts, piss and (dog)shit all play their parts in adaptations of stories that are often death-laden. Coming from Poland, Russia, and Switzerland among others, these 10 tales actually have little Grimm in them, but plenty that’s grim.
There's more varied humour, throughout in 'The Three Sillies' (north English or Welsh accents are sure signs of comedy) and frequently amid darker tales. It makes for a camp self-consciousness most evident in the 2-person mirror which answers Snow White’s Queen with the extravagance of gay hairdressers in a seventies sitcom. There are also virtuoso moments, including a mimed spiral staircase in the Sillies story and a high-speed re-enactment of virtually the whole of ‘Baba Yaga’.
It’s unhelpful to have 2 successive pieces that depend upon swift termination of narrative energy. Yet elsewhere the adapters, if not mining every resonance in all their sources, bring a brisk theatrical surprise and energy.
Their Snow White might have to put up with just 3 puppets in place of 7 vertically-challenged forest-dwellers, but Dave, Wayne and Graham are excellent creations which take account of modern popular puppet styles. Wittily-used, beautifully-expressive, no runaway girl seeking protection in a forest should be without them. And it’s amusing to see the wicked Queen uncertain where to bite her own poisoned apple.
Liz Jadav does a nice line here, as in serial wicked characters from the calculatingly self-willed Balladine onwards, while Carole Carpenter offsets her as innocent young women, whether escaping the witch Baba Yaga, or as Snow White. Generally, the company may have some limits in fluidity of vocal expression, but movement is ever-energetic, while all contribute live music in a highly enjoyable show.
Aline/Silly Daughter/Baba Yaga’s Niece/Bride/Snow White: Carole Carpenter
Balladine/Silly Mother/Storyteller/Old Man/Wicked Stepmother/Cat/Priest/Fortune Teller/Queen: Liz Jadav
Kirkor/Cow/Death/Baba Yaga/Vampire/Prisoner/King/Dave the Puppet: Michael Lovatt
Mother/Farmer/Pen/Old Man/Nice Auntie/Soldier/Old Woman/Mirror/Pig/Wayne the Puppet: Kate Lush
Guest/Jack/Inkwell/Old Man/Servant/Miller/Undertaker/Huntsman/Mirror/Graham the Puppet: Zoot Lynam
Servant/Silly Father/Storyteller/Traveller/Father/Dog/Tree/Ox/Groom: David McClelland
Director: Alistair Green
Designer: Chris Gylee
Lighting: Lindiwe Jones
Musical Directors: Carole Carpenter, Jonathan Langford
Assistant director: Liz Ludwitzke
Assistant designer: Jordan Parsons
2006-12-29 23:45:42