Forget everything you know about Sleeping Beauty, well, almost everything, as this is not like the tale you will see elsewhere - it is so much better! This fabulously devised adventure with great music is a real Christmas treat.Not panto in any traditional sense but a lovely Christmas show with a great story and some beautiful acting that will entertain the whole family.
The story is rather different. Sleeping Beauty is a boy, for instance, and he is rescued by a girl - though not in the traditional way - and that happens pretty early on. After that we have a range of Grimm Brother style adventures, some memorably daft characters and one of the funniest evil witches I've seen in many a long year. Poignant and potty at the same time we are dragged between dancing beavers and evil Bo Peep without ever seeing the join. A lovely, flexible but simple set and live music from a versatile trio of musicians, provide a framework wherein anything, it would appear, can happen. And much of it does.
Sally Cookson's direction keeps the pace right up whilst letting the underlying evil peek through the gaps in the comedy - like a good old fashioned fairy tale should.
Clever, inventive, hugely entertaining and full of fun - I loved it!
