Shake & Stir Theatre Co’s GRIMM is a fearless dive into the darkest fairy tales

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Shake & Stir Theatre Co presents GRIMM at Brisbane Festival and just as many of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales are probably a bit scary for children, so is this show. Theirs is a retelling which is distinct from the books you may remember from your childhood.

The Brothers Grimm rewrote many fairytales originally written by Frenchman Charles Perrault. Similarly, Shake & Stir Theatre Co’s adaptor Nelle Lee has rewritten, dismembered (to use their term) and entwined many of the tales in GRIMM. Shake & Stir’s Cinderella is unable to speak, her tongue having been cut off by her step-mother. She also crosses paths with Rumpelstiltskin. Little Red Riding Hood is not as innocent and naïve as she may seem. The Big Bad Wolf is misunderstood. Beast is sent off by Beauty in search of a virgin’s heart to keep her young in a blurring of the characters from Snow White and from Beauty and the Beast. The character The Robber Bridegroom is often referred to and feared by the various characters on stage, whereas it is its own Brothers Grimm tale.

Even before the show opens, Josh McIntosh’s set of GRIMM sets the tone for the spooky world we are about to enter into. A mostly wooden set covered in cobwebs has a crooked sign that reads “The Witch’s Tit’. On stage are recognisable set pieces from the fairy tales you know. Shake & Stir Theatre Co. excels in spooking us in GRIMM. Early on, the theatre is plunged into darkness and we hear blood-curdling screams, shouts and maniacal laughter. While these things might seem clichéd, Shake and Stir Co. used them so effectively that it made us jump out of our seats.

Brendan Maclean and Nelle Lee in GRIMM Photo: Joel Devereux

GRIMM features characters from Hansel & Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, Beauty & The Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Robber Bridegroom. These are embodied by 4 cast members in various roles: Brendan Maclean, Aljin Abella, Nelle Lee (who also adapted the tales for the show), and Angie Milliken.

Sydney-based singer-songwriter Brendan Maclean, who we loved in L’Hôtel at Adelaide Cabaret Festival a few years ago, shines as the Big Bad Wolf taking to the piano at various points throughout the show. His rendition of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” is one of the many highlights he provides in the show.

Shake & Stir's GRIMM - Angie Milliken and Aljin Abella Photo by Joel Devereux — Angie Milliken and Aljin Abella
Photo by Joel Devereux

Aljin Abella is fantastic as the wonderfully mischievous Rumpelstiltskin and the downtrodden Beast ordered to find a virgin’s heart by Beauty. Nelle Lee excelled as the gin-guzzling, not as naïve as she seems, Little Red Riding Hood that liked flirting with danger. Angie Milliken mainly played the role of Cinderella given the name Ashenputtel, which had the added challenge of not being able to speak. She was excellent at acting as though she had no voice. She also occasionally appeared as Little Red Riding Hood’s mother.

There is some inventive percussion in the show: Little Red Riding Hood shakes eggs that sound like maracas, which happen to be in her picnic basket as she ventures through the woods. There are brief moments of puppetry, also performed by Nelle Lee, allowing birds to fly above, or a baby deer to interact with the characters.

Shake & Stir Theatre Co.‘s GRIMM is also inventive in getting the audience to get involved with the scenes. For a chase scene, the audience is instructed via surtitles to shout “run”. That commences a chase scene that doesn’t play out on the stage itself. Rather, it starts from the stage and goes to the back of, and around, the theatre before returning to the stage. This is expertly directed by Daniel Evans.

Just as most fairy tales share a lesson to learn at their conclusion, Shake & Stir Theatre Co.‘s GRIMM has some sobering thoughts, and positive hopes, for society. This is brilliantly adapted and crafted theatre taking stories we thought we knew so well and showing us that all is not as it seems.