Edinburgh Fringe 2026
The Big Bad Wolf
The Plandits
Genre: Children's Theatre, Musical Theatre
Venue: Space 3 at theSpace on the mile
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
The double crossing Big Bad Wolf encounters all our favourite fairy tale characters on a journey of self-discovery. Performed with live music and plenty of jokes sure to keep everyone happy and clapping along.
Review
We meet the bearded fairy godmother at the theatre door and the auditorium is already filled with banging tunes and good energy before we even take our seats. What enfolds is the situation after the original fairytale ends. Grandmother has been safely removed from inside the Big Bad Wolf, who is now banished into the “big dark wood” with panto-style audience participation from the get go. Little Red Riding Hood, the insufferable goody goody two shoes has taken over as Mayor of the local town and plans a music festival to keep the residents entertained and herself in office for a “third term”. A problem arises when there is infighting in her headline act, namely, The Three Little Techno Pigs. Fortunately, the fairy godmother is on hand to resolve the issues, however things veer further off course when she is tricked by the Big Bad Wolf and loses her magic. It’s a mad scramble to get everything back on track before the opening day of the music festival.
The insertion of the modern era into the fairytale world, such as the delivery man’s boxes being used to spell out positive attributes such as NICE and KIND and the asthma inhaler being turned into a weapon was both fun and appealing to kids. The freeze-frame device which allowed the fairy godmother to deliver her assessment of the situation in rhyming couplets was an excellent theatrical device particularly when the obvious rhymes failed to appear in the later part of the show and gave rise to one or two jokes for the adults only. However by far the highlight of the show was the performance by the techno-pigs which was both hilarious and uplifting with every audience member on their feet singing and dancing along.
This is a feel good musical feast for all the generations. When the kids are having fun we are all having fun, but with its heartwarming message of friendship, the skill of the performers all playing various instruments, singing in harmony and changing characters several times, this show delivers a little more than the sum of its parts. As the younger members of the audience queued to have their photos taken with the characters at the end of show it was clear they had been delightfully entertained. A highly recommended show.
