Writer: Charles Perrault
Adaptor/Director: Nick Lane
It’s rather odd that Charles Perrault is cited as writer for this production as it’s unlikely he’d recognise more than the word “Aurore” (applied to the mother rather than the child) from his original. This is one of Nick Lane’s Christmas extravaganzas, applying all his imagination to finding bizarre twists to a well-known Christmas story.
This time he has been given his head as director which means the whole thing moves at a cracking speed and a high volume, with (mostly) cheerful songs, weird and wonderful costumes (Helen Coyston at her most ingenious) and vivid, often comic, choreography from Stephanie Dattani. A taste of the general zaniness can be gathered from Oliver Mawdsley’s range of parts (Uncle Harry, Herald, Hippo-Faced Man and Butter!) while Amy Drake can boast a Fluffy Robin among her “characterisations”.
The story begins with Molly’s 12th birthday party on December 23rd. Everything is normal: hectic, loud, but normal. Then, after Molly’s Uncle Harry wishes all the children good night, it emerges that Molly has been having a strange dream: she is there, dressed as a queen, with a baby who, it turns out, is a Hairy (half-human, half-fairy). This disturbs Harry and, especially, Auntie Claire who is in fact the fairy Clair de Lune; clearly the wicked fairy Crepuscula has tracked down the Hairy child (for it is, indeed, Molly!) and wishes her to prick her finger before Christmas so that she, Crepuscula, can seize the kingdom. Your reviewer missed the logic of this, but things happen so quickly it doesn’t really matter.
Molly is induced to approach too close to a Christmas tree at the fair and thereafter it’s a crazy chase to free her from the spell before it’s too late as Crepuscula (aided by her lackeys Sock and Butter!), spreading her manic laugh through the town of Scarborilla, attempts to secure the throne.
A cast of five is headed by Kiara Nicole Pillai (as Molly and Aurore) and Annie Kirkman (Crepuscula). Both are excellent, especially in movement, even if they are required to hit the same notes constantly (excited/sulky shouting and panto villain’s laugh, respectively). Amy Drake, Jacob Butler and Oliver Mawdsley flit between parts, wear strange costumes with conviction and above all achieve a really nice mix of the mundane and the crazy.
Nick Lane’s style owes much to pantomime without being pantomime. His plot proceeds merrily without set pieces, but he uses various features: the chase through the audience, the ritual “Oh yes I am” exchanges, above all the participation of the audience. It’s that participation (singing, shouting weird slogans), together with the cast’s interplay with the audience, that makes Sleeping Beauty a success.
One imagines Charles Perrault might have disapproved sternly (what does a supermarket trolley full of teddies have to do with the tale of the Sleeping Beauty?). The young audience adored it. As for your reviewer, he fell somewhat between the two, but inclined to the teddies and Fluffy Robin side!
Runs until 31 December 2025
