Fairy Fails

During the Easter break Wilma and myself journeyed to the land of make believe. The Macrobert Arts Centre housed within the grounds of Stirling University was showing Stirling’s Musical Theatre Society’s adaptation of several well-known fairy stories. The theatrical production placed the various stories into one contemporary play.

            It was performed on a black featureless stage. The young cast, wearing their own fashionable clothing, were all on stage for the opening number. This gave the audience a blast of things to come. We were then introduced to the cast and the characters, which they played. With the aid of the obligatory Fairy Godmother and the character of Rapunzel, this scene set out the premise for the show- how not to pair off characters with out knowing and caring about them?

             Said characters were Bell, Aurora, Gavin, Snow White, Prince Charming male, (of which there were only two in the show.) It took me a wee while to cotton onto this after several checks of the programme in the darkened auditorium.)  Other players included the Director, Alice, Dad, Cleaners and Party guests. The over officious and blundering Fairy Godmother had made a list of wishes each character had wanted granted. They included, finding love, friends, and freedom. The list of wishes would then ticked off from a ledger after being awarded to the relevant characters. Using a grand party as the vehicle, the wishers were then endowed using the most appropriate spell. This as you might guess, caused misunderstandings and problems for all as the individual’s stories evolved.

            With interesting sub plots, social innuendos, local jokes and classis pantomime gestures, the cast bravely fought, through difficult songs. The story line tried to introduce some aspects of the original fairy stories.

            One of the best scenes was when the play’s director had been corralled by the Fairy Godmother as she complained she had not been on stage since scene three. She then told the audience she was the most important character in the show so she should have more time on stage.

            The young cast worked very hard, throughout the play. The audience, which were mainly family and friends, were very encouraging. The show was interesting and it was unusual. It could have been much funnier if the scriptwriter had used more unusual Disney characters, making the misunderstandings far more pronounce.

Hilary Stevenson.