Red Riding Hood
Everyman, Cork
★★★☆☆
Sparkling with exuberance and spangled with laughter, Everyman’s version of the ancient fairy tale of Red Riding Hood appears to be aimed not so much at audience participation as at audience integration. This is present in gleeful abundance, expressed in full-throated response to recurring invitations from the stage, where stallholder Peggy Twomey is definitely in the house. As Granny to little Red, Fionula Linehan’s Peggy fuels her remarkable physique with appropriate vocal energy, especially when encouraging tribal declarations of loyalty to the rebels.
These strident Corkonian assertions could distort what might kindly be termed the plot, were there not so many other elements in this warm-hearted production. At its core the story concerns little Red Riding Hood, and here at its core is Grace O’Halloran, a practical heroine whose calm rationality keeps the thin thread of coherence alive. It also helps that she is a sweet-voiced and confident singer even at 11 years old and that her rapport with this young audience is unforced and immediate.
All the ensemble singers and dancers keep the action lively and often charming, especially in their costumes from Daniel Stones, who also provides a wolf leathered from beard to boot. This usually voracious animal is announced as an acquisitive entrepreneur with his goggles set on taking over Peggy’s trade in breakfast cereals. Despite this indication of the creative challenge posed by converting an admonitory fable into contemporary relevance, it may be that writer Karl Harpur has latched on to the essence of the story.
Modernised in his day by Charles Perrault and analysed much later by the psychotherapist Bruno Bettelheim, it has at its moral centre the transition from childhood to adolescence. This rite of passage is revealed in a captivating exchange between Pip (a stalwart Aoife Hosford) and Red. It is a poignant moment given here with the truthfulness and innocence that lie at the heart of the folk tale and that does much to redeem an episodic script.
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Redemption also comes from the committed performances of other members of the cast, not least those of Pádraic Di Fusco as the woodcutter and Andrew Lane as the imaginary friend pleading for inclusion in diversity. These reflect the talents gathered in this production by director Catherine Mahon-Buckley, but a question arises as to the moderate use of technical resources and imaginative visual innovation.
The theatre itself, in its rare evocative glamour, provides a link of historical consistency. Instead the linkage is a mantra of “belief” applied at random during a variety of vivacious encounters at a bolting pace set by the band, powerfully visible as well as audible under Anth Kaley. A little like that early marriage feast, and noting that Red’s hood isn’t much in evidence, the best costumes are kept to the end in a glory of sequins.
In a presentation veering so dizzily from scene to scene, however, it is disappointing that there could be no better competitive audience anthem than being made “hot to go”.
Red Riding Hood is at the Everyman, Cork, until Sunday, January 12th, 2025
