For this KidsStuff holiday show Rachel Henry (nee More) has reworked the Brothers Grimm’s Rumpelstiltskin as a talent quest to find a princess daughter for an unmarried king to adopt as his heir. Cue much punning about ears.  

Orphan Milly (Kali Kopae), pressured by awful orphan twins Essie (Paul Harrop) and Bessie (Hadleigh Walker), lies that her talent is to spin straw into gold – and it’s all caught on reality television by Arcadia On Air’s celebrity gossip queen Fiona Ferret (Heather O’Carroll).

The twins want fame, Milly wants a dad, the King (Harrop) wants an heir and gold to help his kingdom recover from the Arcadia World Cup fiasco … What Rumpelstiltskin (Walker) wants is to be taken seriously as a male fairy; to have a position that commands respect.

As in the original he promises to spin the straw into gold to help Milly out of her fix, in exchange for her hand in marriage – unless she can guess his name. (The danger with this in performance, of course, is that someone in the audience will shout it out before the appointed time but that didn’t quite happen at the opening show and I’m sure they have that contingency covered.)

Script-wise it’s a bit too wordy at the start, talking about the idea of itself, but once in gear it rollicks along with director Jane Waddell at the helm. She favours the full traverse playing space although most of the action occurs at either end. The kids on mats can readily adjust to follow it all and the adults have chairs down each side.

Kopae engages well with the young audience and her strong singing voice is equalled by the clarity of her characterisation. O’Carroll ticks all the boxes as Fiona but could be a little less desperate by way of emulating the TV pros. And perhaps she could engage more with the older audience as well (which I’m guessing the little ones would enjoy).

Harrop is a delightfully pleasant King and potential daddy to Milly. Walker eschews the usual extremely cranky little man characterisation for more of a petulantly grumpy Rumpelstiltskin and wins us over with his desire to be respected. And both have a ball as Essie and Bessie, entertainingly swinging from bitchy bullying to masquerading as Milly’s best friends in order to win TV exposure and therefore fame. 

A colourful storybook set makes particular good use of swivelling flat in a chase scene. The songs, with music by Rob Ormsby, are generally excellent although the singalong number is either a bit too complex or the cast can work harder to make it happen at a level the audience fully enjoys. 

The moral lies in the efficacy of ’fessing up to having told lies. In summary this Rumpelstiltskin works well in finding a modern context for an ageless tale that engages its target audience in all the right ways.
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