Little Red Riding Hood

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Little Red Riding Hood

Playwright/composer – Music and libretto by Seymour Barab, adapted from the fairytale Le Petit Chaperon Rouge by Charles Perrault

Production Company/Theatre space – Calgary Opera / Mamdani Opera Centre

Length – 55 minutes (including preshow chat and Q & A, no intermission)

Genre/s – Children’s opera fairytale

Premise – In her dream, a girl disobeying her mother picks strawberries on the way to grandmother’s house and the two of them thwart the hungry conniving wolf.

Why this play? Why now? – It’s important to integrate opera into the lives of children at an early age.

Curiosities – If the premise is that the wolf can talk, why not the mouse and rabbit? Why does the wolf refer to his hand and not his paw? Is it better to shield children from fairytale violence? Or is it better to have them face adversity and violence in a pretend situation to make them more resilient and capable?

Notable moment – The puppets.

Notable writing – This version is billed as the non-violent adaption. The librettist also has the wolf eschew fruit and vegetables forcing him to seek only flesh and, because of his disdain, the little girl uses this information to make him nauseous and get the upper hand. Some of the references are antiquated but the rhyming couplets work.

Notable performances – Kelsey Ronn plays the petulant child having a hard time in her new house by the woods. Her teasing brother, Luke Noftall, becomes the wolf and makes a grand villain. The mother/grandmother is Alessia Vitali and she, like the other two, is well up to the task of singing and performing for little, little people.

Notable design/Production – Costume Designer Heather Moore created the prerequisite costumes and the wolf’s is the best, especially the paws! Scott Reid’s set was overly complicated.

Notable direction – Music Director Evan Mounce set up the audience to sing two lines of opera to later help the little girl – this went well. (He also whistles like a bird; a fine skill to have!) Mieko Ouchi’s direction was confusing in places. Why does the wolf exit to the closet and isn’t there when it’s reopened? Was it really necessary to have us watch enveloping the boxes with fitted covers to represent forest knolls? Why does the singer lay out ABC through Z in the air backwards, as children read from left to right? Why does the mother take away the frightened child’s stuffie? Despite blips in logic, it still holds the attention of the little people.

One reason to see this show – If you have a little person in your life, take them along to acclimate them to the genre through children’s lit. Also, the pre-show activity room is well done.