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Camden Fringe
The reimagining of some of your favourite stories – with a restricted twist!Summary
Rating
Excellent
Twisted Tales is the story of six actors who come across a storybook (two gym mats beautifully designed to look like a weathered book). They open it up and are plunged inside to recreate a handful of some classic childhood stories. The actors rely on physical theatre, mouth-created sound effects and imaginative use of extremely limited space to transform a simple set into the settings we know and love, like the cottage into which Goldilocks trespasses, or the creepy forest Red Riding Hood must walk through.
Being confined to the space of two gym mats together could inhibit the actors’ ability for storytelling, yet here it only enhances it. They are able to use the cramped space to their advantage; to create the feeling of a claustrophobic forest or a busy Viking ship swaying on the sea. At no point does it feel as though they are limited and the space is transformed with each scene, which is testament to the creator’s incredible ability for choreography, physical theatre and ingenuity. Box House Theatre Company sets out to create physical theatre without the restrictions of budget or space – and they execute this perfectly.
The rest of the play is also stripped down to its bare bones. There is no use of sound effects, only what the actors create with their mouths and bodies, and the lighting is simple, yet the detail of the story and the emotion created is enough to make you completely forget this aspect. The most moving use is their simply tapping on the mat to represent rainfall at the end of the battle. Such a simple technique, yet it left the audience in shock as the house lights came back on.
Whilst emotional, the actors are also hilarious, with some silly sound effects, brief ‘breaks’ in character or ridiculous facial expressions and casting choices. There’s nothing like Golidlocks’ grandma having a big bushy beard! The humour enhanced the play so much and contrasted beautifully to the sadder moments.
Whilst the play itself reimagines four stories, there is no narrative outside of these tales. The summary itself suggests a more sinister approach – that the actors have no escape from the life of acting out these stories – yet this isn’t further explored. The actors do briefly jump out of the ‘book’, only to look panicked and dread returning, before jumping back in to create the next story. It hints at what the blurb promised, yet is barely mentioned. Whilst the play is entertaining in its own right, it did leave me wondering if there was going to be a climax throughout. Perhaps this wouldn’t be the case if I hadn’t read the synopsis, but then again, very few audience members will watch a show without having read some information in advance.
The biggest tragedy of this whole play is the actors having to stop at only four stories. I would very easily sit through Box House Theatre Company recreating every single book in this medium and never get bored. Twisted Tales is incredibly watchable with a wonderful cast and I would recommend it to anyone!
Produced by Box House Theatre Company
Twisted Tales played as part of Camden Fringe 2023.
