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At each performance of F***ed Up Fairytales, game audience members play games to help choose which three of five fairy tales we’ll see staged. But these are not your childhood versions of Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood, and the like. Writer Michael Hagins infuses adults-only material into the originals’ violence and terror in this extension from a sold-out run at the New York City Fringe Festival.
These twisted, madcap versions feature drinking and drugs, copious use of the f-word, and even some sex, along with borrowings from popular culture. Manic if scattershot energy, pseudo-Seussian narration, and audience participation kept the action mostly moving, though the flow faltered at times. The three stories I saw weren’t exemplars of expert storytelling. But the booming, sometimes outrageous, and always fully realized performances by members of a rotating cast made the show for me a fun respite from a deadly New York City heatwave.
A fiery, violent Gretel turns the tables on the witch, manga-style and with little help from her dopey brother Hansel. Rapunzel may be locked in a tower, but she’s no maiden in distress – and by the end, no maiden either – in a James Bond-inspired version of her tale. And the real terror in “Little Red Riding Hood” turns out not to be the hungry wolf at all, though Kiki Dowell’s deliriously over-the-top performance of the legendary canine is a hoot and a half.
The talented cast I saw vibrated with enthusiasm. But Crystal-Marie Alberson in the princess/maiden roles blazed especially, in all three segments. Whether bullying, creepy, blasé, or vampy, her take-no-prisoners depictions buzzed with visceral presence. She was the very essence of what live theater is all about.
F***ed Up Fairytales from Rising Sun Performance Company has ended its summer run, but don’t be surprised if it re-emerges. In one form or another, the classics always do.
