And he showed me things, many beautiful things...
...that I hadn't thought to explore. [...] And he made me feel excited. Well, excited and scared.
Little Red Riding Hood - "I Know Things Now"
from Sondheim's Into The Woods
Little Red Riding Hood - Grimm Festspiele, Hanau, 21st May 2016
Anyone who does not know the Grimm story and the character?
LRRH is the little girl with the red cape and everyone loves who is sent to her grandmother with a basket full of wine and cake having to walk through the forest where she meets the bad wolf not knowing who he is.
Getting distracted by him she decides to pick some flowers for her granny off the path and in the meantime the wolf rushes to the grandmother's house where he eats the grandmother and eventually when LRRH arrives her too. At the end both get rescued by a huntsman. End good all good.
Simple short story. And for me it is not the most exciting Grimm story, already as a child I was not much a fan of it. Yes, lovely girl, gets eaten by bad wolf and then is lucky to get rescued, no challenge, not much development but the message to never leave the path again (which may have suited the good old time but is just not appropriate any more these days).
How to turn that into an adventurous captivating story is IMHO quite a challenge, there is not a lot to the raw material.
But again Jan Radermacher, in his third year at the Grimm Festspiele (and now even deputy art director of the festival - well done) manages to capture the Grimm spirit but adds substance and depth to it though at the same time adds funny entertaining moments as this version of LRRH is to be for the whole family so needs to appeal to children and adults at the same time.
Cast:
Kristina Willmaser - Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood) called Lotte Honigbeere
Catrin Omlohr - Molli Honigbeere, her mother
Barbara Krabbe - Oma Babu, the grandmother
Benedikt Selzner - the big bad Wolf
Patrick Dollmann - Cornelius Pip, the huntsman
Detlev Nyga - Fräulein (Miss) Agathe Sabberbein, the mayor | August, the mounted boar head
Nadine Buchet - Cäcilia von Stolzenkamm
Katarina Schmidt - Petunia von Stolzenkamm, her daughter
Marius Schneider - Philosophus, the little wolf
In this version of LRRH we actually meet a little girl that is not so loveable. Living in the perfect town surrounded by its perfect wall with its perfect inhabitants, its perfect major, LRRH looks out for something else beyond the perfectness wanting freedom and making her own decisions constantly getting into trouble when trying to break free.
The perfectness though is the result of some strict rules established by the strict and threatening mayor as the town is apparently threatened by the one not to be named living in the woods and therefore security is everything. There is even a day of security celebrated. The day when we meet LRRH.
Everyone not following the rules, as LRRH's grandmother is a danger to this perfect world, not that the grandmother cares about the perfectness living her own free life deep in the forest and coming across as some free spirit directly from the 1960s.
Without going too much into detail and spoiler-ing the clever story, yes the original is still there, but it is told rather quickly, this story is about a young girl (and the town inhabitants) realising what is the right path for one is usually not the right path for someone else and that no one else, even if they just want to help and be good, has the right to dictate the path you are about to take. It is up to you to make up your own mind.
Maybe for some the right path is the shortcut through the forest to get to their destination, to what they long for and where they belong to. And for others the right path is the beaten track not wanting to take any risk, always looking for the easiest way and so on.
For a family show this may sound rather complex but it is not portrayed that complex, actually rather simple. And that is owed to Jan Radermacher, who not only wrote the book, but also directed it excellently.
As already said the book is full of surprises, clever moments taking people, especially the kids, seriously giving people something to think about, something and somone to connect with and to get touched by the events and what happens to the characters but at the same time adding comic and funny moments and it is transferred to the stage with an eye for detail making best use out of the simple but effective stage set by and situation comedy especially with the addition of the young wolf, the bad wolf's nephew and a vegetarian (oh the amount of veggie jokes made me, a vegetarian for over 20 years, grin) and the mayor who, cast with a man, has a most strong resemblance with Miss Trunchbull of Matilda (even (occidentally as learnt the day after) sharing the first name).
Everyone not following the rules, as LRRH's grandmother is a danger to this perfect world, not that the grandmother cares about the perfectness living her own free life deep in the forest and coming across as some free spirit directly from the 1960s.
Without going too much into detail and spoiler-ing the clever story, yes the original is still there, but it is told rather quickly, this story is about a young girl (and the town inhabitants) realising what is the right path for one is usually not the right path for someone else and that no one else, even if they just want to help and be good, has the right to dictate the path you are about to take. It is up to you to make up your own mind.
Maybe for some the right path is the shortcut through the forest to get to their destination, to what they long for and where they belong to. And for others the right path is the beaten track not wanting to take any risk, always looking for the easiest way and so on.
For a family show this may sound rather complex but it is not portrayed that complex, actually rather simple. And that is owed to Jan Radermacher, who not only wrote the book, but also directed it excellently.
As already said the book is full of surprises, clever moments taking people, especially the kids, seriously giving people something to think about, something and somone to connect with and to get touched by the events and what happens to the characters but at the same time adding comic and funny moments and it is transferred to the stage with an eye for detail making best use out of the simple but effective stage set by and situation comedy especially with the addition of the young wolf, the bad wolf's nephew and a vegetarian (oh the amount of veggie jokes made me, a vegetarian for over 20 years, grin) and the mayor who, cast with a man, has a most strong resemblance with Miss Trunchbull of Matilda (even (occidentally as learnt the day after) sharing the first name).
The music and the songs' lyrics underline the story flow well. While the music is certainly no masterpiece it can entertain being catchy, versatile and matching the different scenes without being too forced as seen in other children shows too often.
With the strong book and direction the cast cannot fail and even exceed my (high) expectations.
Kristina Wilmaser, whom knowing from my beloved Villa Sonnenschein at the Schmidt Theater being totally wasted in it, is a strong LRRH who can shine with her fresh and energetic play and can convince with her singing mostly, just in the higher ranges she could need some more stability and confidence. Marius Schneider at her side as the young wolf is witty, bubbly and sweet. Not much a fan of him in prior shows he can finally entertain.
The show stealer is certainly Detlef Nyga as the mayor. Yes, having seen Matilda in London I do not know how often it is obvious that the casting and directing the character was clearly inspired by Miss Trunchbull but since it is a tough job to portray as a man a strong minded woman (knowing someone who understudied the part of Trunchbull I KNOW HOW hard it is) the performance was even more impressive. When he walked around that stage moving as woman, with the shoulders back and not so floppy as men usually walk, with the voice adjusted etc. I could not be anything else but be wowed.
Benedikt Selzner's portrayal as the bad wolf could have easily turned into a farce, a parody but he managed to walk the fine line being a truly bad wolf but still being kinda likable. Well maybe not really likeable but since the badness is something you kinda link with a wolf you cannot help but accept that since it is part of his disposition.
Also the others were of high standard and I was pleased to finally see Patrick Dollmann onstage again.
Overall a wonderful afternoon, even the audience was less posh and snobby as last year when had originally decided not to go first shows again but with certain circumstances and being pretty certain certain other half not there I am glad I went. It definitely must be the highlight of this year's Grimm Festspiele, well the musical of Rapunzel, I saw the week after, was dull as hell.
Cannot wait to see next year's production by Jan Radermacher!
Show pictures on official website >>here.
Curtain call pictures:
Show pictures on official website >>here.
Curtain call pictures:
