INTO THE WOODS | STAGE PREVIEW
“Into the woods, it’s time to go. I have to leave, I have to, though…” In the shadows of the trees something magical, fanciful and strange is happening; an enchanting musical masterpiece, filled to the brim with a feast of fabled characters. The Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, at Bute Theatre, presents Into The Woods: a concatenation of half of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
This Sondheim stage production unites the tales of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack And The Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty, with an original story of a childless baker and his wife who are informed by a quivering, quavering witch that their barrenness is a result of her curse. The couple can only undo the spell by journeying into the woods – that scarily inviting place where protections and inhibitions are removed – retrieving key items from various fairytales in the progress. But each of the storybook characters wanders off-path and into one another’s stories, muddying the morals and restoring the fairy tales’ unpredictable, folklorish bite.
It’s all vigorous fun, wonderful, wintry entertainment, but its branches catch at your heart. “Children will listen,” warns the show’s best-known song, but this staging of Into The Woods makes sure that adults will listen too.
Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, Cardiff, Fri 4-Sat 12 Dec, Tickets: £12/£10/£6 under-25s. Info: 029 2039 1391 / www.rwcmd.ac.uk
words ZOE BROOKES
photo OLLIE HENZE