Brilliant folk tales that flare in the blackness

The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Stories Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London

The candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is a realm of enchantment particularly well suited to the rough magic that’s a speciality of Emma Rice, here directing her first production since her resignation from the Globe. And so, given the context, it’s hard not to see this show – a hybrid of Hans Christian Andersen folklore that celebrates storytelling as a life-giving force – as an artful “up yours” to the Globe board.

Happily, it’s also very good. Rice’s little matchgirl puppet begs Ole Shuteye to conjure up fairy tales to keep her warm on a frozen London night. Each strike of the match summons Shuteye’s travelling troupe of players, who perform before the little girl’s rapt, saucer-sized eyes Thumbelina, The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Princess and the

Pea. That we know the little girl’s imminent fate can’t help but bring to mind Prospero’s speech as we watch: each a vision made from baseless fabric, soon to melt into thin air.

This is an exquisite spell of a show but it’s also irreverent and funny. Paul Hunter is right at home as Shuteye, a vaudevillian MC. His troupe, eastern European-accented Harlequin clowns, mix knock-about comedy with some superb puppetry. Joel Horwood’s rhyming script bulges with wit and even includes quips about electric lighting and codpieces. Andersen’s stories are like brilliant flares in the blackness. Thus danger is always trying to get in here, from the sexual trafficking undertones in the story of Thumbelina’s arranged marriage, to the hipster conmen who fleece the Emperor of his belongings. A three-piece band perform gorgeous, lambent folk music throughout.