A Real Fairy Tale

Those expecting Shanghai Repertory Theater’s (SRT) current production, The Enchanted Circus of Grimm to be an amusing, child-friendly retelling of fairy tale classics will be disappointed. The play, authored by local playwright Audrey Murray, is a retelling of Euripidean proportion, assuming thorough knowledge of classic fairy tales to breathe new life into characters for the sake of explorations into the nature of love, identity and the difference between fantasy and reality. It’s a fairy tale for grown-ups.

There’s a dark, serious tinge to the action from the get go. We see a weeping Sleeping Beauty (Verena Huegel), her back turned to the audience, despairing in front of a mirror, mustering the courage to finish writing a suicide note. She finishes her note, eats a poisoned apple and dies. A figure, who later turns out to be the Robber Bridegroom (Charles Mayer) appears and scoops up the evidence.

The following scene begins with an older, no longer little, Red Riding Hood (Rosita L. Janbakhsh) met in the woods by the ghosts of Rumplestiltskin (Richard Bochniak), The Dancing Princess (Meredith Yarbrough) and Rapunzel’s Prince (Julien Bertrand). They warn her not to venture further in the direction of a traveling circus. She goes anyway.

Here she’s met by the circus mistress, The Evil Queen (Natasha Portwood) of Snow White fame who offers her the chance to join the circus and forget about her past troubles with wolves. Soon we meet the other circus performers Gretel (Kirsten Oloson), the Frog Prince (Deji Odunlami) and the Step Sister (Amanda Daniels) of Cinderella fame. The play’s tale of intrigue and introspection takes off from there.

Despite its continual message of reality over fantasy, the production isn’t entirely bereft of flights of fancy. Three impressive, extended dance numbers choreographed by Katie Baszner and Natalie Jeon are used to illustrate passionate love affairs between Red Riding Hood and her beaus. Also of particular note visually is the use of shadow play to depict circus acts and later in the play, a murder.

Regardless as to whether or not audiences take to the high meta-drama of The Enchanted Circus of Grimm, it’s a tremendously ambitious and well-executed production, one for which SRT should receive applause.