Fairytales and the Fringe - by Dea Birkett

Never underestimate the power of the poster. We’re walking along the heavily fly posted Edinburgh streets, and the nine-year-old twins are reading them all out loud, from the rudest burlesque to plays about bunny rabbits. One called Cinderella catches Savanna’s attention.
‘I want to go and see that!’ she says.
‘But we’ve already seen Cinderella,’ moans her twin brother.
‘But I like Cinderella,’ she says,
‘But I don’t want to see it again,’ he replies.
‘There are different versions,’ she moans. The conversation continues …

Now here’s a conundrum. If I were an obscure theatre group putting on a play for kids at the Fringe, I’d give it a title every child recognises. Cinderella. Oliver Twist. Something that sounds like a Roald Dahl title even if it isn’t. That way, any child will want to go and see it. We’re booked in for the Jungle Book. The Next Chapter tomorrow, just because it’s got the words ‘Jungle Book’ in big letters on the posters. You could call in poster pester power. And I succumbed.

But should I? Perhaps I should be introducing the kids to stories and ideas they haven’t come across before. If I can’t do that at the Edinburgh Fringe, where can I do it? But I’m also a lazy mum. I don’t want to have two whinging kids sitting next to me throughout a performance. I want to space out while they watch. So it’s Jungle Book in the morning.

And we went to see Hood this afternoon – because it’s about Little Red Riding Hood. But the great thing about the Fringe is even if the title is familiar, the content certainly won’t be. This production had a lot of singing and dancing, but no real script. I couldn’t really make it out, but the twins did. So I felt as if I’d ticked all the boxes – it was a story they knew, in a form that was new to them.

I wonder what Jungle Book will do tomorrow.

www.edfringe.com


Photograph by Kenny Mathieson and Hood production by Peculius Stage