The title bemused me: what has a circus show for children got to do with pulling a face in pain or disgust? In retrospect I can concede Deborah Pope and her Awkward Theatre Company have aced the Grimms (and rolled the Dahl, for that matter).

Grimace is a mash up of classic fairy stories that plays, twists and riffs on the ‘once upon a time’ clichés its target audience (aged 4-14) know so well. To brilliant music and sonic effects composed and played live by Jeff Henderson, four performers use words, song and the physical language of circus to play fast and loose with the themes.

Sitting Miss Muffet-like on a high stool, petite Emily Gare sweetly enunciates rhymes that sound like something we know but they’re all in a mangled-up tangle. Possessing a dancer’s poise, she turns out to be astonishingly acrobatic and brilliant at hula-ing multiple hoops. Not for her the simpering princess in distress. In fact her dress soon gives way to more practical attire …

Full of energetic runs and leaps punctuated with exquisite poses on – or jutting out from – poles, Jamie Smith just has to say “Jack!” for everyone to know his core role. He also delivers the prancing prince on horseback bit, but the idea of kissing a comatose princess back to life is way too “Yuk!” for the boy behind me. Nah, it’s jumping Jack the goose-stealer who leaves the stronger impression.

As the all-purpose witch, Tanya Drewery exudes suitable menace and evil while proving adept at hula-hooping too, and at throwing them just right to Emily. A dance with a fan, done with two others, is also memorable, not least for its ‘ugly sisters’ overtones.

Asalemo Tofete is mostly the giant, mesmerising as he moves slowly through space. His main preoccupation is a huge golden ball – for which read egg – around which much of the plot-related action (such as it is) takes place. (Can that scrawny little goose have really laid that ginormous egg?)  There’s nothing scary or bad about this giant, in fact once he has sung a lovely song, who could possibly unleash a giant-killer on him?  So they don’t; just a goose-napper.

In fact when the climactic sneaky, creepy, snatchy, chasey, fighty sequence – in quest of said goose – finally occurs, the vocal kids (on Tuesday morning, anyway) are just as inclined to shout “Wake up Giant!” and “He’s up there!” as they are to warn Jack to “Watch out!” Perhaps they just want the excitement of the chase.

To avoid a cutesy-poo ending, the performers lapse into the grumpy and tired childlike states we all experience after too much exuberance, and some interesting thoughts and views are exchanged … Good call.

Danielle Schilling’s bent pole setting, with a model castle and secret hiding places, and story-book costumes are excellent, as is Nik Janiurek’s lighting. Deborah Pope has paced it well for moments of repose amid the excitement; for contemplation amid the agitation.

If there is a ‘lesson’ in this one, it is that you can have an awful lot of fun when you are physically fit. That, too, is a very good call.

The public performance on Saturdays 19 and 26 March (10am) are highly recommended for family groups – and apparently anyone not with a school group is welcome to weekday performances (10am, 11.30am and 1.15pm), space permitting.
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