Theatre reviews: Once Upon a Snowstorm | Red Riding Hood
Red Riding Hood, Tramway, Glasgow ****
Once Upon a Snowstorm, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh ***
Amid the long closure for rebuilding of their lovely theatre in Gorbals Street, it’s a joy, this Christmas, to see the Citizens’ Company once more in action at the Tramway, delivering a complete no-holds-barred belter of a show for school-age children and adults, based on – but not even slightly inhibited by – the old fairy tale of Red Riding Hood and the wolf.
Written by Lewis Hetherington, this version has our heroine Ruby, who prefers to be known as Red, living in a quiet town near the forest with her mum and dad, and dreaming of Christmas, which has been banned by the mayor. The problem is that according to the local paper The Daily Snail, the town is under threat from terrible big bad wolf, who will take advantage of anyone who does not stay at home and remain quiet; and the townsfolk are so afraid they they do as they’re told.
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Hide AdAll of them, that is, except Red; who thinks the culture of fear is ridiculous, and appoints herself as a hero who is going to save Christmas. Local scribe and narrator Kevin Batwang helps her discover that the banning of Christmas coincided with the disappearance into the forest of a character called Granny; so off she goes into the woods to find Granny, and to try to work out how to deal with the supposed wolf threat.
To its credit, Hetherington’s 75-minute script – directed with terrific flair by Dominic Hill, featuring fine, rebellious songs by Michael John McCarthy, and brilliantly designed and lit by Jessica Worrall and Lizzie Powell – is both intensely political and hilarious, full of smart observations about authoritarianism, alongside riotous panto fun. The ending is a shade schmaltzy and personalised, after so much hard-hitting argument; but with Cindy Amor acting up a storm as the dauntless Red, Maureen Carr magnificent as Grandma and terrific supporting work from Michael Guest as Kevin, Francesca Hess as Mum and Ewan Miller as the mayor plus another character who had better remain nameless, there’s certainly never a dull moment, although wise audience members will remember to wear clean red socks, for a finale like none I’ve ever seen before.
Gentler times are afoot at the Traverse, which plays host to Lyra Theatre of Craigmillar’s glowing and meditative Christmas show, aimed at five- to eight-year-olds, Once Upon A Snowstorm. Based on the children’s book by Richard Johnson, Jo Timmins’s adaptation creates a lovely tented white world in which to tell the story of a boy who lives in a lonely house in the mountains with his dad, and of how the two become separated in a snowstorm, until the boy is brought home again by animal friends he meets in the forest.
Based on a highly over-idealised vision of the natural and animal world, Johnson’s story sometimes seems barely strong enough to sustain a 45 minute show; and the narrative rhythm sometimes falters a little.
It benefits, though, from a beautiful, wintry and magical musical score and soundscape by David Paul Jones, partly delivered by actor and violinist Fay Guiffo, who plays the boy alongside Michael Sherin as Dad; and although some of the show’s visual and lighting effects work better than others, at their best they are lovely and breathtaking – above all when the boy and his friend the bear look up into the night sky and see the constellations, reminders of how the animal world has always been entwined with the human imagination.
Both shows until 23 December