Last year, while
in Berlin, I went to see the musical produced by the UDK musical-theatre school
and its graduating students. I was really impressed, not only by the standard
of the performance, but by the fact that they performed a fine new musical,
written especially for them by the well-known team of Zaufke and Lund. A grand
challenge, requiring the young people to put up original performances, and not
you-tubed imitations. And a challenge well met.
So, when I saw
that this year’s graduates were to perform another new Zaufke-Lund piece, I
booked in. With difficulty. The whole run was sold out, with a waiting list for
returns and people standing outside with placards ‘Tickets wanted’. For a
student show!
This year’s show
was significantly unlike the earlier one. Whereas Schwestern im Geiste was a largely serious piece, Grimm! is anything but. Oh, sure, it has
its little message of social and sexual tolerance to purvey, but first and
foremost it is a grand old fairytale burlesque, brimming with fun and deconstructed
Grimm tales, and decorated by a score of catchy and jokey music with references
to everything from ‘Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf’ and the Disney
soundtracks to the Queen of the Night’s Vengeance aria or Der Rosenkavalier. A feast for young folk to get their teeth
(grrrr) into.
A cast of eight
represented a spunky Red Riding Hood (Devi-Ananda Dahm) with a distinct
resemblance to Belle of Beauty and the
Beast and her ‘beast’, the wolf (Jan-Philipp Rekeszus), the three little
pigs (Fabian-Joubert Gallmeister, Feline Zimmermann, Dennis Hupka) – the smart,
the fat and the dumb one – flighty Madame Goat (Katharina Beatrice Hierl) and
her fabled goatlings, the village elder, Sultan the hound (Dennis Weissert) and
his rednecked son (Anthony Curtis Kirby), plus the other denizens of the wild,
wild wood: the beturbanned owl (Sophia Euskirchen) and the spiky wild pig
(Kiara Brunken). Mix, stir, deconstruct, turn the story and the characters
upside down and the wolf turns out to be a nice chap, the fat pig is slim … as
the tale of Town versus Wild Wood winds to its happy ending amidst a shower of
song and dance.
The cast were,
each and every one of them splendidly skilled, across the board, in song, dance
and comedy. To single anyone out would be invidious. Alas, with my poor German
I missed the subtleties in the text (and the audience laughter told me there
were lots) but I was agreeably surprised at how much I did catch, thanks to
excellent diction and delivery and a slightly forceful sound system. However, I
did not miss the subtleties in the direction, the dancing and most especially
the music and singing. I enjoyed the frank burlesque numbers the best: one or
two were a little near the real thing (eg the wolf’s Wildhorny solo and Red
Riding Hood’s reply) in writing or delivery, but that almost always happens
with parody. It’s a thin line. My utterly favourite musical moment of the night
was the mad, waltzing love-duet between the wildwood pig and the town pig,
ending with the two having a lovely wallow together (‘Schwein gehabt’). And
there were plenty other moments of delightful fun, music and dancing to fill
more than 2 hours of playing time, ending with the littlest pig planting a
luscious kiss on the big, good wolf’s lips! The audience went crazy.
Grand six-piece
band (sounded like many more, and they must have been tripling instruments!),
lively direction – and, for the second year in a row a marvellous, yet simple,
stage setting by Ulrike Reinhard. In the foreground, the letters D.O.R.F in
blocks of white, at the back W.A.L.D in black. And never the twain shall meet.
Without a word being said, the situation is set. And then Little Red Riding
Hood slips into the wild, wild wood and things begin to change.
I have a feeling
that Grimm! will be played a fair bit
beyond the Neuköllner Opera and UDK. In fact, the Opera House in Graz has
already got off the mark, and to judge by its posters is aiming at a ‘family’
audience (note the difference in the length of Red Riding Hood’s skirt). And why
not? Kids will probably miss as many ‘subtleties’ as I did: and have just as
good a time as I did!
Bravo to all
concerned!
PS Note to
students. If you aspire to above the title, in-lights billing, long and three
word names can be costly.
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