Grimm Tales, 2022

Our first live Secondary production in two years has finally happened!

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were German academics, cultural researchers and authors who, together, collected and published folklore. They are among the best-known storytellers of folk tales, popularising stories such as “Cinderella”, “The Frog Prince”, “Hansel and Gretel”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Rapunzel”, “Rumpelstiltskin”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “Snow White”. Their first collection of folk tales, Children’s and Household Tales was published in 1812.

The popularity of the Grimms’ collected folk tales has endured to this day. The tales are available in more than 100 translations and have been adapted by filmmakers, including Walt Disney. In the mid-20th century the tales were used as propaganda by Nazi Germany; later in the 20th century psychologists such as Bruno Bettelheim reaffirmed the value of the work, in spite of the cruelty and violence in original versions of some of the tales, which the Grimms eventually sanitised. In 1992, Carol Ann Duffy and Tim Supple collaborated to create a new version for The Young Vic Theatre in London, going back to the original source material and reinventing it as theatre and it is this translation that is being presented at BSJ.

Our ensemble company of MYP students has explored the way in which these stories, both familiar and less well known, are constructed and connected and still have a relevance to us today. Taking a Brechtian, physical and non-naturalistic approach to making theatre, the work has been both student centred and based on exploration and experimentation.