Into the Woods
★★★★★ Dark
Paradise in Augustines (Venue 152): Fri 2 – Sat 10 Aug 20204
Review By Thom Dibdin
Bare Productions go hard on Into the Woods, James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s popular mashup of fairytales, to expose its utter cruelty and the callousness of many of the favourite pantomime heroes that people the musical.
That said, it is also a most entertaining production of a musical that bears many repeat viewings. It combines a complexity to Lapine’s book with strong musical through lines from Sondheim which ensures that any new production can find its own way into the woods, where the prettiest and most attractive flowers lie furthest from the straight and narrow path.
Elsie Watson, Rebecca Holmes, Harrison Owens, Will Jackson, Cathy Geddie, Ethan Baird and Chris Young. Pic Rachel Bolton.
Director Dominic Lewis makes clever use of the tiny St Augustines stage, all but bare under Andrew Layton’s design with only a couple of step ladders, girt around with trailing leaves. One for Olivia Hall’s Siren-like Rapunzel, the other for the ghost of Cinderella’s mother (Mae Haerons), but both doubling up up as general “woods”, through which a straight path may be strayed from.
Layton does a great deal more with his costume design, however, ensuring that there is a sense of the iconic to each character. He also responsible for the design of a brilliant puppet Milky White Cow which, while defiantly bovine, somehow has the air of a rather cuddly pig combined with a wet-nosed dog.
But it is Lewis’s deft direction and use of the stage which keeps this flowing along at pace, ensuring that while the show went up ten minutes late, it still finished on time. It is helped that cast members act as moveable parts of the set, creating the sense of foliage or manipulating wee tweeting birds as appropriate.
rounded support
Finlay Turnbull’s band provide a full and rounded support for the singers, too, with well-balanced sound design from Sean Quinn ensuring that the lush sound Turnbull gets out of the band never drowns out what is happening on stage, while the company consistently bring clarity to Sondheim’s lyrics.
Ethan Baird and Cathy Geddie as the childless Baker and his Wife lead a cast that is consistently at home with its material. It is the couple’s search for four magic elements, in order to appease the ageing witch (Felicity Halfpenny) who lives next door, that draws the four fairytales together.
Tara Mccullough, Anna Spence, Elsie Watson and Rosie Sugrue. Pic: Rachel Bolton.
Baird’s baker is suitably arrogant – a sin many of the characters are easily accused of – with Geddie creating a nicely questioning and spirited character for his wife. Halfpenny is a marvel, all bowed and crooked and spiteful – the latter trait she could emphasise just a smidgeon more after her later transformation.
Elsie Watson has a beautifully clear singing voice to lend to the character of Cinderella, who she creates as very much at sea as events overtake her. Rebecca Drever has a more robust voice as Little Red, but her creation is one of the production’s highlights. A truly spoilt brat as Drever flounces around in her red cape, growing even more pugnacious when she swaps it for a wolf’s skin.
glaikit yet wholly endearing
Harrison Owens’ Jack is a glaikit yet wholly endearing fool, who only his mother (Rebecca Holmes) ever really has the heart to chide. Given Holmes down-home sensibility, her demise at the hands of Mae Haerons’ punctilious Steward is all the more shocking.
Rosie Sugrue is imperious as Cinders’ Stepmother with Tara Mccullough and Anna Spence bickering impressively as her stepsisters – ugly on the inside. And there is real internal ugliness to Cinderella and Rapunzel’s sibling Princes, Will Jackson and Aaron De Veres; who take arrogance to new levels of self-entitlement.
Milky White. Pic: Rachel Bolton.
It is held together by Chris Young as the Narrator. They’re there when needed, but very much drifting into the background as a good narrator should.
There are proper laugh out loud moments to the production, with the emergence of Little Red and her Granny from the Wolf’s belly standing out, and Red’s greedy taking of all the Baker’s bread nicely finessed.
However, the overall impression of the production is of a dark and cruel woods where, bad intentions go to fester. There is redemption, but the Children Will Listen finale never felt more necessary.
Running time: Two hours and 45 Mins (including one interval)
Paradise in Augustines (The Sanctuary), 41 George IV Bridge, EH1 1EL (Venue 152)
Fri 2 – Sat 10 August 2024
Daily: 7.25pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Bare Productions links:
Website: www.bareproductionsedinburgh.com
Instagram: @bareproductions
Facebook: @BareEdinburgh
X: @BareProductions
The cast of Into the Woods. Pic Rachel Bolton.
