Review gonzo turn red riding hood tale on its head

Damian McCarney

Gonzo’s bonkers take on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, The Stray Path, successfully ventured along two paths at once in the Townhall last weekend.
The kids, who dominated the audience, skipped lightly along a path cheerfully paved in silliness, gags and fabulous slapstick humour. Parents meanwhile were poked onto a tightrope of taste, where their ears tuned into another frequency to giggle along with the adult themes cleverly sneaked in. Budgetary short-sightedness, environmental devastation, animal cruelty, elderly isolation, social breakdown and even prostitution were all sheepishly touched upon, dressed up in a disarmingly cutesy wolf’s clothing. Under Kevin O’Connor’s direction, it’s beautifully judged and absolutely nothing is spelled out - the kids at Sunday’s matinee in the Townhall Theatre never picked up on anything they shouldn’t have.
A fang-decayingly sugary song and dance, led by Red’s family, kicks off the action before Ray Fitzsimons, playing a debonair Hannibal Lector wolf - smashes through the sweetness declaring, ‘This is not the show you will be watching’ as he launches into a Gil Scot Heron-flavoured tirade.
The show we did watch unravelled the story of Little Red (Bláithín McCormick), who is actually the granddaughter of the original Red (Teri FitzGerald), now 105 years old and showing it - ‘My grandma, what a hairy face you have!’ riles Little Red, believing she’s actually chatting to a wolf.
‘That’s the change,’ snorts granny Red, ‘and it’s all ahead of you!’
Having failed to share in the reflective glory of her granny’s achievements, Little Red, with her ego scalded, embarks on a despicable plan to have her name also go down in folklore. Her scheming centres on taking advantage of a gullible young wolf - Andy (Shane Carroll). As Little Red’s best laid plans go awry, the naive galoot Andy must find his way to the woods of Siberia where he’s sure of a big surprise, and along the way the traditional Red Riding Hood tale is delightfully turned on its head.
Off-stage, master of all musical trades, Robbie Perry painted a fabulous, live sonic backdrop to proceedings, spanning folksy banjo ditties, to funky bongo beats, to Jewish-tinged Eastern European influences. The live music amplified the energy beaming from the actors as they brought to life the rhythmic joys of chief-Gonzo Philip Doherty’s gag-filled script. This primarily being a kids show, he greatly upped the slap-levels of the slapstick, most memorably with Fitzsimons’ ab-testing use of a zimmerframe and FitzGerald’s violent doorbell-cum-alarm clock. Unseen stars of the show were Noel Nash, who built the multi-level set along with Shane Carroll and, together with artists Pawel Kleszczewski and Kasia Zimnoch, captured the wondrous world of fairytales, whilst a screen show-cased Gonzo’s visual invention.
There’s no more honest audience than one full of kids - they will tell their parents and everyone else exactly what they like as it’s happening - so it’s with complete confidence the Celt can report that they absolutely loved it.

Such is the demand for The Stray Path, they have added extra shows in the Townhall Theatre - Saturday, December 27, 7.30pm, Sunday, December 28 at 3pm and 7.30pm, and Monday, December 29, 7.30pm.