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SCMP Reporter

BY the end of the real Cinderella, the story turns very ugly indeed. When those evil stepsisters try to fit into the little slipper that was left behind at the ball, they are so desperate to grasp the happy-ever-after ending for themselves that they cut half their feet off.

  One chops off her toes and the other her heel, and in each case the dashing prince only realises the mistake when he notices the trail of blood.

  'At the end a crow swoops down and pecks out their eyes, which is quite unpleasant as well,' said Tim Supple, director of Grimm Tales, a show appearing at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in February, which promises to put the 'grim' back into traditional fairy stories.

  'And of course, the two sisters aren't ugly at all. Making them ugly would be too easy. So they are all beautiful, but the evil sisters are ugly inside,' he added.

  The show, performed by the Young Vic Theatre Company from London, is based on a selection of the German folk stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm at the beginning of the 19th century.

  The old folk tales have been chopped around so much by pantomime scriptwriters and film studios that they have changed almost beyond recognition.

  'They've been modernised, and had characters added and taken away. But most of all they have been made nice,' Supple said with a hint of distaste. 'Since the Victorian era we've thought that we have to protect children, and the tradition has been continued right up to now with Walt Disney.'   In the Young Vic version then, Supple has carefully followed the shape and tone of the originals. So no extra witches or fairies, and no pretending that Hansel and Gretel has anything to do with gingerbread houses.

  In fact, the desire for faithfulness to the text is so strong that each of the stories lasts only for the time that it takes to read them.

  The script is written by the poet, Caroline Duffy. 'The reason I wanted a poet was because I wanted the language to live: I didn't just want a dialogue,' Supple said.

  The play is full of surprises, he promised.

  'We think of fairy stories as being a world of colour and tinkles and chiffon. But they're not: they're quite nasty, all about terror and catharsis.'   The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage is a less well-known Grimm's tale.

  The story starts with the three creatures living together in harmony: the mouse lays the table, the bird gets the wood and the sausage cooks. But then a raven arrives and tells them that they each have a raw deal. So they become dissatisfied, and decide to swap.

  'The mouse burns herself, the bird falls in the well, and the sausage gets eaten by a dog.'   Other stories are more fascinating to post-Freudian generations. The thing about Hansel and Gretel, for example, Supple said, is that it is deeply horrifying. 'It deals with the fear of being eaten. It is the socially realistic story of people who are starving.'   In the original story it is the mother who turns out to be a witch. 'In later versions she was changed into a wicked stepmother, just to make the truth more palatable.'   The story of Little Red Riding Hood was also given an emergency operation by the prudish Victorians. 'In the original she gets undressed and climbs into bed with the wolf. The Little Red Riding Hood is symbolic of her reaching puberty, and the wolf is the dangerous male.'   However, this removal of sugar coating makes the stories more, not less, appropriate for children, Supple emphasised.

  'Kids love it, it's just the adults who feel a bit queasy or unsure sometimes,' he said.

  His son, Felix, was just three when Grimm Tales had its successful run at the Young Vic Theatre, but he still went to the show many times, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

  'The important thing is that children should see that theatre corresponds to their most difficult and dangerous feelings. If they don't find that, it isn't surprising if they lose interest in theatre by the time they become teenagers.'   He joined the Young Vic a couple of years ago, with the idea of encouraging an atmosphere where innovative theatre work could be created.

  'But we misunderstood the political reality of cultural existence. If you empty the theatre because you have taken too many risks, then you are in trouble.'   That is exactly what happened, he admitted. The South Bank audiences were not interested in paying to see his raw, experimental treatments, and soon the theatre found itself searching desperately for funds. 'It was a frightening thing to see what happens to a theatre when the money side fouls up.

  'I remember the chairman of the board saying 'We're haemorrhaging cash'. He pointed out that people would be made redundant, and the theatre would be closed.

  'It was alarming: I know that I will never let that happen again.'   Grimm Tales was the first production under the new ethos. It was as free in its experimentation, and as physical as Supple would ever have wanted, but it also pulled thousands of people into the theatre.

  'People have tended to find more than they expected in it.

  'The first thing you hear is, of course, 'Once upon a time . . .'   'But spoken by a starving man, that line can create a tremendous amount of tension.'   The Young Vic with Grimm Tales. Feb 24-28 7.45pm, Feb 25 2.30pm. Arts Centre Shouson Theatre. $120-$220. Victoria Finlay flew to London courtesy of British Airways, a long-time sponsor of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.



Grimms' dark roots