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RUMPELSTILTSKIN
- tour
Director - Olivia Jacobs
Designer - Katie Avis
Lighting Designer - James Whiteside
Composer - Jon Fiber
Company - Tall Stories
Tour Dates -
27 Nov - 29 Dec Tickets from the macRobert Stirling 01786 461081
and 2 - 6
Jan 02 at 11:30am & 3pm Lemon Tree Aberdeen 01224 642230
Full details at end of review
Reviewer - Timothy Ramsden
A superlatively imaginative hour
It's only three actors in modern dress on a stage with a few props,
but this new play for 6+ should fire imaginations young and old. A simple
barrow wheel fitted with fairy lights twirls into a golden thread. And
it's a highly physical performance. Rumpelstiltskin is made an unnatural
creature in key moments when two actors combine to create a powerful,
fearsome-looking creature. More usually he's played by one actor, Adam
Bampton-Smith, who doubles as the father whose boastings place his
daughter on a knife-edge. Only Rumpel's ability to spin straw into gold
saves her from the threat by the King, Steve Brownlie, that, should
she fail in that task, her neck will answer for it. It's briskly paced,
though never hurried.
The whole action is told as a tale by a mother to her child. It's a heart-stopping
moment when we finally realise this mother is the Queen, Nicola Harrison,
and the tale is autobiography. However materialistic her father's - or,
initially, her own - ambitions, they are overtaken by love for her child.
That alone makes this especially appropriate for Christmas. But not exclusively
so. Anyone looking for overt thrills and spills, plus panto-style audience
involvement, should look elsewhere.
Anyone who wants a moving, finely performed story where morality and feeling
arise naturally from narrative, and are expressed with vibrant theatricality,
should home in on the Lemon Tree this week. And if word of mouth's as
good as I'd expect, this show should join Tall Stories' popular Gruffalo
stage adapation and have a much-extended life.
© Timothy Ramsden 21 December 2001
Tall Stories
Rumpelstiltskin Scottish Tour details
27 Nov - 29 Dec Tickets from the macRobert Stirling 01786 461081
27 - 29 Nov at 10.30am, 1.30pm Smith Art Gallery
30 Nov at 10.30 am, 1.30pm and 7pm Smith Art Gallery
1 Dec at 2pm and 7pm Smith Art Gallery,
4 Dec at 10.30am Smith Art Gallery
5 & 6 Dec at 10.30am and 1.30pm Smith Art Gallery
7 Dec at 1.30pm and 7pm Smith Art Gallery,
8 Dec at 2pm and 7pm Smith Art Gallery,
11 - 14 Dec at 10.30 am and 1.30pm Smith Art Gallery
15 Dec at 2pm and 7pm Smith Art Gallery
18 - 20 Dec at 10.30am and 1.30pm Victoria Hall Dunblane,
21 Dec at 7pm Victoria Hall Dunblane
22 Dec at 11am and 2pm Victoria Hall Dunblane
24 Dec at 2pm and 7pm Smith Art Gallery
27 to 29 Dec at 2pm and 7pm Smith Art Gallery
2 - 6 Jan 02 at 11:30am & 3pm Lemon Tree Aberdeen 01224
642230
Tour Ends
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