FAIRY TALES WITH A HEART OF DARKNESS

Grimm Tales (Unicorn) Verdict: The Grimmer the better

SOME years ago Philip Pullman wrote a version of the Grimm brothers’ 19th-century fairy tales. That adaptation, Grimm Tales, has now been adapted for the stage at the Unicorn children’s theatre near London Bridge.

I couldn’t bear the childishness of the first 20 minutes, but by the end I was gripped. The Grimmer it became, the less patronising it became, the better it worked.

Seven energetic actors play a variety of roles and make extensive and inventive use of a dressing-up box.

Some of the gothic tales will be familiar, such as Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel. Abandonment, witches, forests, impetuous adults — these are the Grimms’ repeated themes. One story, told here, acquires a same-sex love angle, sweetly done.

Less familiar may be stories such as The Juniper Tree, in which a boy is decapitated by his stepmother and returns to haunt her as a songbird. And I did not know the Grimms had done a version of the King Lear story.

On Tuesday night the children in the audience ranged from about six to 16. Some of the little ones seemed to think it was a panto and shouted out, ‘She’s over there!’ when a queen was earnestly seeking her lover.

And hearing at one point of a king who fell in love with his daughter, the young audience united with loud ‘Eurrghs!’ Great moment.