Reviewed by: Ellie Dean

In 2023, we have been blessed when it comes to fairy tale theatre. The premiere season of a new Australian take on the Cinderella story, Midnight, was lighting up the stage of the Comedy Theatre until just a few weeks ago, and is expected by many to announce a tour (or something even bigger) very soon. Even globally, crossing borders to New York, the first broadway revival since 1992 of Sondheim’s Into The Woods has just finished a triumphant and critically acclaimed run. Most importantly of all, here at the University of Melbourne, Newman Theatre Association have staged a charismatic, intelligent and completely haywire fairy-tale production: Don Zolidis’ play The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon. 

For the most part, the set-up is pretty simple. A troupe of actors and two reluctant narrators attempt to perform the entirety of the Brothers Grimm’s 209 collected stories in the short span of a traditional two-hours-with-intermission theatrical runtime. As expected, hijinks ensue, etc etc, and a good time is had by all.  But there’s a twist: as if to make things even spicier for actors (and audience), the play doesn’t just touch on each tale, but links them all together through a complex web of parentage and butterfly effects into one massive overarching meta-tale. It sounds like a daunting undertaking, but never fear – it will be, we are promised by the characters, the greatest theatrical spectacle we’ve ever seen, ever!

I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the show depicts a few more obscure tales – The Girl With No Hands, anyone? – as well as the classics, like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel.  The script and the cast clearly also had no qualms with depicting some of the darker bits, and the result often felt delightfully (and accurately) closer to Horrible Histories than Disney. The play transverses a lot of different genres: pantomime, horror, and even once a game show sequence, but each new format was seized upon with such energy and dedication that it nearly always left the audience in stitches. I’d like to give special mention to their execution of audience participation, which can so often feel awkward, but were carried out with spades of charisma and authority, and worked wonderfully. 

It was a delight to see such a combination of new and familiar faces on the stage in this production. We’re lucky to have a lot of talent in our uni theatre scene, but it can sometimes be a bit insular, and it was a good choice for NTA to pick a play with lots of roles of varying size that people can have fun with. It’s a hectic play that’s very fast paced, and there were a few times when lines were missed or mumbled in the thick of things, but overall everyone did an impressive job of keeping on top of everything. Costumes and set, respectively provided by the talented Tighe O’Donoghue and Ondine Keohan, were another highlight. The patchwork look was strong, and the set design was very versatile for such a small space. I really loved how co-directors Lachlan Bowker and Jessica Elfick seemed to be so committed to letting each actor shine, and embracing the script’s chaos. You could tell how much fun the cast was having, and it made their energy completely infectious. 

If there’s any feedback I could pass on to the cast and crew, I’d like to say that it would have been good to make information about the production more readily available and accessible. It’s understandable to want to embrace technology like digital programs, but there were some QR code issues that made them hard to access. It would have been helpful to at least have a cast list or prod team credit in the foyer – it’s hard to compliment particular actors when you can’t tell who played who, especially in such a busy show. And, let’s be very clear, NTA definitely deserves lots of compliments for Spectaculathon. Great fun!