As a huge Angela Carter fan, I had high hopes for Big Shoes Theatre Company’s production of The Company of Wolves. I am pleased to report that not only did it meet my expectations but surpassed them in so many ways. A feminist re-imagining of the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, The Company of Wolves casts Red as a knife-wielding firecracker who is seduced by a suave werewolf in human form. The production makes full use of Carter’s lyrical prose, embedding passages from the original text within the piece to great effect.
The cast are all excellent, performing with a maturity and depth of understanding that belies their young age. Amy Kennedy as the lead wolf gives a particularly strong performance, her werewolf has just enough swagger and dangerous charm for the audience to believe Red’s decision to follow him into the woods. The whole company remain on stage for the duration of the performance, never breaking character and responding appropriately as the plot develops, sharing knowing leers as Red hurries through the wood and creating sound effects that add to the overall feeling of unease the play projects.
The use of live music, movement and dance complements the production; trees come to life as Red chases her wolf through the forest and the transformations of the werewolves from human to beast are appropriately animalistic and physical. The staging is also well thought out, especially the use of ladders helping to create the notion of being watched from all angles, although there’s slightly too much emphasis on floor-work. While this is understandable (they are wolves after all), not being able to see what was going on in some scenes did affect my enjoyment of the performance. The final scene in which Red and the wolf reach an uneasy acceptance of one another sounded lovely from the dialogue but from three rows back I couldn’t see any of it.
The Company of Wolves is a classy, polished production, with a cast that show great promise and potential. Beautiful, lyrical and haunting, you won’t think of Little Red Riding Hood in the same way again.
