ROLES: Lighting Designer.
Presented with Metro State University.
St. Paul, Minn.-Rats’ Tales, a collection of short pieces by British Poet Laureate-Carol Ann Duffy (adapted to the stage by Melly Still), will run one weekend only – April 3, 4, 5 at 7 p.m. with a matinee on April 6 at 2:30 p.m. The Metropolitan State University spring performances will be at the Historic Mounds Theatre, 1029 Hudson Road. Originally presented at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester, England, in 2012, to excellent reviews, this is the first performance of Rats’ Tales granted in the United States. David Hanzal directs.
Rats’ Tales weaves together original stories by Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy with dark and enchanting fairy tales from around the world. The thematic thread that runs through the show explores the pain of innocence lost, stolen childhood, growing up and growing old. The macabre and magical stories include: An outsider with mysterious powers who rids a town of vermin and then entices all the children away; a mother so eaten up with jealousy that she steals her youthful daughter’s shadow; a strange growing doll in a doll’s house who bursts out of the house and becomes real; and a young boy who is mentally forced to the point of invisibility by his stepfather, when his mother remarries. Using puppetry, live music, visual spectacle and storytelling, audiences aged nine to 109 will be taken on a thrilling journey into the darker side of these fairy tales.
“Fairy tales are strange and familiar, frightening and reassuring, and provide a map of childhood which we can use as adults to remember who we are. Their retelling and reinterpretation is part of the lifeblood of literature.” -Carol Ann Duffy.
SØREN OLSEN 