Fairy Stories

Paul Jenden has created a wonderfully camp entertaining experience with his Fairy Stories at Circa. Not only did he do the choreography and direction of it, he also did the costumes and just for good measure was one of the five cast members. I’m in awe of the range of his talents.

Fairy Stories runs for around two hours (with a break) and in between the opening and closing numbers, they cover ten classic fairy stories – Beauty and the Beast, The Tin Soldier, Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Conderella, Three Bill Goats Gruff, Tom Thumb, Bluebeard and Puss in Boots.

The cast is led by Sir Jon Trimmer, and as well as Paul Jenden, included Louis Solino, Kate O’Rourke and Jenny Beech.  They danced and sang up a storm. In a performance with basically no dialogue, it all comes down to how well the cast connect with the audience through visual, rather than verbal means.

Fairy Stories managed this very well. The cast’s facial gestures were only matched by the colourful array of costumes they went through.

This photo by Stephen A’Court captures the three little pigs at the end of their routine.

Don’t expect these fairy stories to work out quite the same way as the traditional stories. I certainly never recall Red Riding Hood and The Wolf dancing quite so erotically, and Tom Thumb got to go to certain places no midget should be.

My favourite twist was with the three billy goats. The troll which wouldn’t allow them to pass was a “Ms. Gruff” who was guarding wimmin’s only space. As the three billy goats all have rather large hanging testicles (no not real ones), they don’t have much sucess trying to sneak past Ms Gruff despite the ribbons they wrap around themselves. Finally the largest billy goat settles it in the traditional fashion.

Auckland Girl and I both loved the performance – it was lots of fun. You know you’re really enjoyed it when you’re disappointed that the performance is over. The only slight downside to the night was the laughter from one woman in the audience. Normally having the audience laugh is a very good thing, but this particular laugh resembled a 747 taking off.