Backstage West
December 8, 2004

Fireflow

Take it from an expert: Fairy tales are too frightening, too potent for children. Erik Ehn apparently agrees. He has penned his language-rich version of two of Hans Christian Andersen's, and they are emphatically not child-friendly.

"Back the fuck up," begins the little match girl in Matcher in the Nigh (The Little Match Girl). She is not the passive physically wrecked child of the original but rather a modern street teen (Angela Kang)--spunky, dying for no apparent reason other than societal neglect. Shades of Salinger? The grandmother (Julia Prud' homme) is archetypal: cheery, chubby, comforting. Borrowing from another Andersen tale, Ehn adds the Nightingale, who of course sings (giftedly by Michelle Noh), and Death (Doug Sutherland), who cakewalks down from heaven. Costuming, by Tom Slotten, ties together Victorian and modern. Dioramas re-create the hallucinations of the girl and also embody the piece's many references to theatre (set by Susan Gratch).

The less-familiar The Story of a Mother is here as Blister. The Mother (Prud' homme) dances in and out of a life-giving, life-taking river (lighting design by Trevor Norton)

Other characters are created by puppets (designed and built by Eli Presser), the actors (Noh, Kang, Sutherland) carefully crafting souls for their inanimate creatures: a cuddled dog, a hobbling grandmother, a towering Death, and the deceased son for whom the mother bargains.

These two half-hour works are directed by James Martin with due reverence for the symbolism of fairy tales and for the audience's enjoyment of rich visuals, with earthly humor and with heightened attack. His vision is exquisitely supported by the sound design and richly scored original music of Michael Roth; dare we suggest live music for subsequent productions? This rendering of the tales might not tug at our emotions. But, for the minds that are looking for a little tugging these days, it is invigorating viewing. -- Dany Margolies, Backstage West