Asbo Fairy Tales

A heavily pregnant fairy, a yuppie Goldilocks, a Jeremy Kyle-style King chatting to a jilted Snow White, Burbery-wearing rats. These are all guaranteed to get laughs as the young cast move through the different tales, each with a modern-day twist for Britain’s ASBO-culture. Though the sketches are predictable, they are enjoyable, and easily play with stereotypes of Britain’s yoof with knowing references to cider and fags, skins, skunk and daytime TV. The young cast obviously enjoy what they’re doing and this enthusiasm gives the show a vitality and energy that keeps the pace snappy and the sketches slick. The parade of familiar stereotypes becomes slightly dull after a while and since the cast is obviously skilled, it seems a shame they haven’t stretched themselves to explore more real characters.With their nice middle-class accents, their constant mockery of chavs in hoodies and cider-swigging single mums becomes a stereotype in itself, which makes the final sketch all the more refreshing: a neo-hippy Goldilocks squats the 3 bears’ house to create a peace commune for educating the common people - when the common people arrive, her disgust is tangible, and she is shown for the pretentious girl she is. Moments like this show the wit and intelligence behind the play, while the range of accents and characters used by the cast suggest that they could all go on to do much more creative shows in the future. Characters such as Pot-head Jack and his mum in Jack and the Weedstalk are particularly well done.At times funny, with many clever elements to its design and script-writing, this show doesn’t quite fulfill its potential. The cast’s Fringe future looks bright.