FringeReview Scotland 2024
Rumpelstiltskin
Platform with Glasgow Kelvin College
Genre: Theatre
Venue: Platform Easterhouse.
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
Taking a well-known fairy tale and redeveloping it with a twist in it is always a good idea when it comes to Christmas. Here, writer Lewis Hetherington has done precisely that with a fantastic cast, thoroughly helped by the local students taking roles in the chorus. It is tautly directed with a set that’s highly imaginative given the lack of resources available to all Scottish theatre companies, this weather, and this is an absolute treat for all of the children and young people who come to see it.
Review
Given the current financial circumstances in which theatres are having to operate in Scotland with the sword of Damocles sitting above them until January, along with the increase in National Insurance contributions for an employer, this is remarkable. Given that both have cut swathes of fiscal security out of smaller theatre companies, it is delightful to see that The Platform have once again given the locals at Easterhouse a show well worthy of them.
This is not a high-end production at the King’s or the Pavilion in Glasgow or indeed a Scottish Ballet show at the Theatre Royal, but it is nonetheless wonderfully imagined and performed.
The writing is crisp, taking the idea of Rumpelstiltskin from being the absolute villain that he is in the fairy tale into being part of our hero worship is creatively imagined really well. Where it could have updated a little more would have been to instead of making it the dipsy girl who needs rescued perhaps looking at the gender politics of now with the message across the footlights. I don’t necessarily think that all Pantos need to take account of diversity, I think to recognise that outside of auditorium, there’s a community that needs to be reflected. And with the usual panto trope, we got Little Bunny Plop Plop needing Big Rumpelstiltskin to save her from the evil Duncan MacWoof, her husband and the villainous king. It would have been better had Bunny Plop Plops rescue herself then find she did not need the sacrifice made by Rumpelstiltskin. It would be nice to have a feminine heroine.
As the story unfolds, with the twist over not being able to remember his name being central to the denouement, the children were thoroughly and completely engaged with the entire thing. The cast sell this with great gusto and pace. Michael Guest is a fantastic Rumpelstiltskin; Scarlett Mack is an engaging though scatty Bunny Flop Flops and Adam Buksh manages to play the dastardly Duncan Macwith with panto villain verve. This tiny cast are ably assisted by a group of highly enthusiastic HND Musical Theatre students from Glasgow Kelvin College next door. This is an ensemble cast with enough busyness on this large stage to fill it and make it feel occupied. Some of the dance moves that boogie on down with classic 80s, 90s and Christmas hits work really well and it is great to see how inventive both the lighting designer and set designers are. They provide us with sufficient spectacle to elicit gasps at the beginning as Rumpelstiltskin takes us from front cloth through into this magical place where we start by getting the very beginning of his story. The music is dated so, perhaps some of the younger children probably thought they were original pieces of music written for the show but those of us who have memories – know exactly how good these were the first time round; rewritten with new lyrics they are no less the effective for that.
And so, if you are out in the sticks in Glasgow and you don’t have the ability to hop on an inconsiderate inconsistent system of transport to get to the big theatre companies this is exactly what small to medium scale theatre in Scotland should be about – meeting a local need and doing so with a degree of confidence loaded with a combined artistic vision to guarantee you don’t get anything second rate but something very much first class.
