Grimm Tales

I was delighted to attend your recent production of ‘Grimm Tales’  and it proved to be another excellent evening’s entertainment provided by Cobham Players.

The ‘business’ with the tabs at the start of both acts was very amusing and set the scene for the confident performances that were to follow. There was, rather surprisingly, plenty of comedy and many amusing asides considering the content of the tales.

A simple but striking set and the large white cubes, slickly moved by the actors, created the setting for each tale, and the blue lighting on the psyche at the opening gave a mystical and creepy atmosphere to the black and white colour scheme.

The cast were dressed in black which worked really well for the darker undertones of the stories – now rather more sanitised for small children to enjoy as fairy tales - and the wonderful sparkly make-up added a touch of magic and fun.

Each of the members of the Ensemble became narrators of the tales whilst also playing numerous roles throughout the evening. I enjoyed the way that the men sometimes portrayed women and vice-versa. The addition of lively, choregraphed musical numbers at the finish of each story served to end one before moving on to the next.

There were some good accents in evidence, (loved the French one from Millie and Steve as Queen and King) and the business with the donkey was particularly entertaining.

The whole cast played the numerous characters most convincingly and it was astonishing to see how they took up the mantle of each one with such apparent ease.

It was good to see the younger actors join the more experienced mature performers and they acquitted themselves very well. Tom could perhaps slow down his dialogue a little –from time to time it was rather too fast – the older ears in the audience don’t pick it up quite so quickly as do his peers!

Sound effects were especially good and the lighting created a perfect  atmosphere for the various stories.

This entertainment needed an enormous amount of input from the director, on top of the usual setting/blocking, and Marlisa Doubell, with the assistance of Summer Walia, clearly provided it.

Your programme is substantial and of good quality but unfortunately, as I can’t find any mention of NODA in it, you would not be able to enter it into the programme/poster competition. The necessary requirements to be able to do so can be found on the NODA website.

This was a particularly good production and my guest and I enjoyed every minute of it.

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