GRIMM: Shake & Stir's most ambitious show

If you have a soft spot for the Hunter's performing arts scene, there is a name that has been quietly building a reputation for spectacle over the years: Shake & Stir Theatre Co. The multi-award-winning Australian company has a track record of taking big stories and giving them a theatrical makeover, with past productions including The Great Gatsby, Frankenstein, A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, Animal Farm and Dracula. Their latest, GRIMM, is being billed as their most ambitious show to date, and it is not the kind of fairy tale you would read to a child.

GRIMM is a dark and irreverent reimagining of the Brothers Grimm tales, described as deliciously twisted and potentially ruffling some feathers. The setting alone sets the tone: an abandoned drinking house deep in a dark forest, where familiar characters like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood are dropped into a world far removed from their storybook versions. It is not for the faint of heart, either. The production comes with a 14+ age recommendation, and the content warning is a long one: adult themes, sexual references, simulated violence and gore, infrequent coarse language and the depiction of alcohol consumption. If you are bringing someone who is not quite ready for that, it is worth knowing before you book.

The creative team behind it is a proper ensemble effort. Daniel Evans directs, Nelle Lee has adapted the script, and the show was created by Ross Balbuziente, Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij. Balbuziente also serves as creative producer, with Josh McIntosh on set, Paul McCann on costumes, Trent Suidgeest on lighting, Guy Webster on composition and sound, Saffron Benner as dramaturg, Dan Venz on choreography and movement, and NJ Price as fight director. On stage, the cast is led by Aljin Abella, Helen Cassidy, Melissa Kahraman and Henry Rollo.

It has not gone unnoticed elsewhere. The production is currently touring nationally, and the reviews it has picked up along the way give a sense of what to expect. The Fame Reporter called it a delightfully chaotic romp through the darker corners of fairy tale lore, The Blurb described it as a wonderfully irreverent re-imagining, and InReview listed it as one of Brisbane Festival 2024's standouts and hottest tickets. Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane went with savage and sophisticated, intelligent and probing, while Stage Whispers called it impressively clever, brilliantly performed, frequently hilarious and thoroughly entertaining.

For a company that has previously staged Disney's Frozen the Musical at the Newcastle Civic Theatre, GRIMM is a sharp turn in the other direction, and that is part of the appeal. Shake & Stir has a habit of taking well-known stories and twisting them into something unexpected, and GRIMM is the most pointed version of that yet. Whether you come for the dark comedy, the stagecraft or simply to see how far they have pushed the fairy tale, it is a production that earns its most ambitious tag. Just remember the 14+ rating before you walk through the doors.