NEVER INBETWEEN
Fables and Fairy tales
We all know the stories… don’t we?
It’s wonderful to be captured unawares, and right from the first moments so we the audience were caught – by a freeze-frame quartet: ensembles at the ready, caught, in their turn, between books and their own imaginings…
And then a moment of reflection – a clever device to introduce both cast and intention as we saw our stars-to-be on the big screen, preparing to tread the boards: the usual thespian route of stage to screen turned upside down.
And thereafter it was the joy of performance: The Golden Goose (was anyone else waiting for a golden egg?) caught me unawares – I didn’t know the story! That laughter should win the day was as it should be (though, as with the best fairy stories, it’s dark laughter at heart, just to keep you on your toes). Rumpelstiltskin ran and romped, and the weaving was done to perfection… but what else was captured by the intertwining threads? Ah yes; nothing is simple. And nothing was simple for the misused and wishful Catskin either. So nearly everything lost, but everything won in the end (though the old man may disagree): our happiest ending? The Hare and the Hedgehog, and the defeat of hubris, looked set fair to trump it – victory to the underdog and lots of laughter on the way… only for a tragedy to tip the balance and draw the worst from the best. And so the moral of our night exploring the medieval imagination is? Modesty, humility and dignity in your victories; and much the same in all your trials and tribulations! Yes, please! And what a fine example our cast and crew set: terrific in their endeavours, marvellous in their performances, and dignified in their gratitude for their audience’s warm, lengthy and well-deserved applause.
