Little Red Riding Hood’s Dangerous Game with the Wolf

Her reactions become impulsive. Wolf symbolises historical dangers, exploring the themes of gluttony, sexuality and the simplicity of an instinct.

A production made up of a variety of genres intertwining elements of physical theatre, film and live music. This playwright has been inspired by the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood, the text of Uršuľa Kovalyk’s Red Shoes, the meaning of Perrault’s in­terpretation and leans on Bruno Bettelhaim’s theory from his book ‘The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales’, theories of Jan Stern and Martin Elligman. At the same time, it postulates about german’s story of The Red Slipper in the book ‘Women Who Run With The Wolves’ by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

The Red Slippers story is about a poor orphaned girl, who makes her own red shoes from scraps of fabrics she finds. Later on she is adopted by an old, rich, woman. Her shoes are burned, so she buys herself brand new sparkling red shoes, which reminds her of her lovely handmade ones. However, these shoes are cursed and they make her dance, even when she doesn’t want to. This story points out unhealthy behaviours of jealousy. It also shows that nothing in life is free and that things modestly made by hand can mean more than sparkly gifts.

Symbols

Red shoes are often a symbol of sexuality, or even of passion and womanhood. This story focuses on the difference between the handmade shoes, symbolising passion, joy and survival and the new shoes, which too brought vigour, but only as a placebo effect taking their energy into the wrong direction. . This kind of shoes are in this performance ‘Little Red Riding Hood’s Dangerous Game with the Wolf’. The story is about the devastating power of passion and the longing for love and harmony. Shoes that bring on impulsive and lustful behaviour.

The character of grandma is often a symbol of wisdom, but in this story, her character is corrosive and hostile. The theme explores the role of older generations as supporting helpful or harmful behaviour in their grandchildren. This could also be interpreted as personal intuition or internal thoughts, which teach Little Red about the consequences of her actions. Sometimes she plays the role of a vicious gran, sometimes a loving one.

Symbolism of the number three is often used in stories and it’s not missing from this one either. The power of allurement is also used, as in the original story of The Little Red Riding Hood. The main story’s temptation is a trap that becomes a link between the wolf and the dangerous situation.

The wolf is depicted in this story as a bad, gluttonous character that waits for the innocent and vulnerable; killing without measure, just to have fun. Wolves’ bad reputation in stories is unjust, as they are loyal social creatures. There are two reasons why a wolf would kill. The main reason is hunger, just like in this story where Little Red’s soul is starved, the wolf is starved too.

Director: Renata Jurčová
Playwright: Štefan Jurča
Actors: Vanesa Hagyungová, Štefan Lengyel, Mária Székelyová
Music: Lukáš Kubičina
Scenography and lighting effects: Dorota Volfová
Costumes and production: Dorota Chlpačová
Trailer and dokrútky: Peter Drmlík
Poster and bulletin: Dorota Chlpačová, Alica Záhorská
Engineers: Juraj Hajnal, Dorota Chlpačová

This project is supported by public funds from the Arts Fund.

Additional supporters:

Základná škola, Ul. svätého Michala 42
Základná umelecká škola Levice
Mestské kultúrne stredisko Tlmače
Mestské kultúrne stredisko Levice

Technical requirements

Sound:

• 2× XLR (stereo)
• 2X DI box
• 2× speakerphone
• 3× 220V electric plug

Lighting:

• 5× PC 500w
• 3× PC 1000w
• 1× ground tripod
• 4× tripod min. 1.5m high

Stage: blackbox, black baletizol (min. 6m x 8m)