Into The Woods review: A ‘combination of innocence and malevolence’

James Lapine’s story plus Sondheim’s songs deliver a deliciously diabolical tale of a childless baker (Rhashan Stone) and his wife (Alex Young) who do a deal with a witch to help them conceive a child.

They must venture into the woods and collect five fairy tale objects, including a lock of Rapunzel’s golden hair, Jack’s cow Milky White and Red Riding Hood’s cloak. But Sondheim & Lapine go beyond “Happy Ever After” to ask what happens afterwards?

Having already tackled similar subject matter in his 2005 movie The Brothers Grimm, Gilliam is steeped in the brutal and outlandish world of their folk tales.

Jon Bausor’s sets and props deliver the kind of shock and awe one hopes for and rarely gets.

As a young girl plays with a toy theatre, a cadaverous narrator (Julian Bleach) dressed like a zombie funeral director sets the scene. Wondrous things start to happen.

The village disappears as trees slide across the stage like Birnam Wood en route to Dunsinane; the witch shoots fire from her fingertips and the Giant’s widow is the legs of an enormous doll that stomp onto the stage and squish at least one character underfoot like King Kong.

Gilliam gleefully plunders imagery to add to his own inventions – the giant swinging fob watch slicing across the stage evokes The Pit And The Pendulum, Rapunzel crawling from a can of baked beans has trace echoes of Ann-Margret in Tommy.

He even manages to reproduce the Buster Keaton collapsing wall stunt which draws gasps from the audience.

Guts and gore splurge when the Wolf (Nathaniel Campbell) is eviscerated and Red Riding Hood and Granny are pulled from his stomach; blood runs down a theatre loge as Cinderella’s sisters undergo toe and/or heel amputation.

But there is a disconnect between the performers and their roles, as if everyone had been left to their own devices.

Lauren Conroy makes an impact as a Glaswegian knife-wielding Red Riding Hood, Alex Young is wryly amusing as the Baker’s Wife and Nicola Hughes brings *super-baaad* attitude and a great singing voice to the Witch.

But when the human heart of the show belongs to the cow Milky White (Faith Prendergast) there is something amiss.

Gilliam’s combination of innocence and malevolence is a perfect fit for Sondheim’s work, however, and his child’s eye vision is mischievously entertaining.

• Into The Woods, Theatre Royal Bath, until September 10, Tickets: 01225 448844