Into the Woods (Terry Gilliam Dir.) - Theatre Royal Bath

{HUGE Spoilers - click to view}For the Witch’s first entrance she appears at the Bakery door window, which the Baker closes the blind on, then almost immediately she’s at their first floor window, then back again.

The Witch has her usual spell flashes that zap at the groins of the Baker and his Wife.

The ghost of Cinderella’s mother is heard through an oversized pink flower in a stem vase. The head of the flower raises and gestures as it sings, dropping her petals to Cinderella’s feet. When she appears later on her ball gown looks like it’s been made using the petals.

As the Wolf attempts to lure Red away from the path, he sings “You’re missing all the flowers…”, and as he points a number of roses fly down from the sky landing bolt upright on the stage. Much more impressive than it sounds.

Mysterious Man frequently appears from behind trees without any hint that he’d been hiding there.

The giant pocket watch is originally used as the first beanstalk which Jack climbs down and sits atop to sing “Giants in the Sky”. It’s then used several times throughout the rest of the show, swinging in like a pendulum for each midnight gone (accompanied by the cuckoo clock atop the fake proscenium arch) and finally to dispose of the Witch.

The faux theatre boxes at the sides are opened as a window into the Royal Castle, and during the Prince’s shoe fitting as the Stepmother attempts to bring her daughters’ feet down to size, blood drips down the wall below.

Red Riding Hood’s rescue from the Wolf’s stomach is particularly gruesome. The Wolf is in Granny’s four poster bed, and as the Baker cuts his belly open, Red emerges dripping in blood and covered in entrails, closely followed by a vengeful Granny equally drenched. Both have strong Glaswegian accents, and they really play up their violent intentions.

I didn’t mind the backdrop, I thought it added a bit of extra depth in the darker scenes. It was also used to show (in silhouette) the banishment of Rapunzel’s Prince and his fall into the thicket of thorns. Similarly as the Royal Family attempt to escape to a far-off Kingdom, they exit the “theatre” only to be captured by the Giant’s Wife (“No you don’t - that’s cheating!”) who grabs them all (again in silhouette) lifting them to their doom.

The Giant’s Wife is voiced by the little girl, her doll’s feet are HUGE and stomp around the stage controlled by people underneath. The soles are hollow, so she can step on the other characters and have them disappear underneath. She’s supposed to be a large doll that doesn’t “fit” in the toy theatre properly, so it works well within the framework of this production. Her huge “plastic” arm sweeps down out of the wings to grab the Narrator, and when the survivors eventually slay her, her huge broken head lands on the stage (looking a little like the poster of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?).