Sprite Symphony (Fairy Installation) by Davy & Kristin McGuire (Do NOT Tap the Glass!)

Not specifically a fairy tale but it might be the sort of thing you'd find in a fairy tale, here's a lovely little film of an inspired installation being hosted and exhibited by the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company), made with holograms (and fairies!).

Thank you to the ever-creative and tuned in Lisa Stock of InByTheEye for alerting me to the magic.

The team, Davy and Kristin McGuire, were the creative geniuses behind another "projected project" I love, titled The Icebook, (you can see my post on it HERE), and they've done many more since.

Take a look at this lovely, lovely thing!

From the Vimeo description:

Commissioned by and developed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and later adapted for the Enchanted Parks, Sprite Symphony is a magical installation using projections and sound to create a beautiful yet dark display of fairies that have been trapped in jam jars and are trying to escape their glass cages. 

The fairies knock and tap on their jars and thereby create a polyphonic musical composition. 

The sprites are currently exhibited in a Victorian display cabinet in the RSC theatre foyer in Stratford upon Avon, (and) they also featured in the windows of the park keeper‘s shed at the Enchanted Parks in December 2013.

I'm thinking the fairies are drawing people to them with this magical sound and display, in order to persuade you to let them out. Trouble is, I don't entirely trust fairies. No matter how pretty they are, they tend to bite.

And just to underscore my wariness, this RSC exhibition also has a piece titled 'The Haunted Dress'. Worn by the Faerie Queen, it has a life of it's own.. and possibly teeth. (You can see the trailer for it HERE.) *shudder*

The Haunted Dress is an installation using theatre couture, projections and sound to tell the gruesome story of a beautiful but savage fairy queen who seduced a man into madness.

The exhibition, which opened in November last year, will run until March 2, 2014.

Press release from the RSC (and I'm including the artists' info & credit below as well, because these guys are just amazing!):

Sprite Symphony. By Davy and Kristin McGuire  

PACCAR Room, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon  

16 November 2013 – 2 March 2014 

Sprite Symphony takes you on a journey around the theatre into a world of magical fairies and sprites. Follow the trail to find enchanting fairies trapped in jam jars and the Queen of the Fairies' haunted dress. Discover a cabinet of curious sprites in the foyer and listen to their enchanting music.  

Created by award winning artists Davy and Kristin McGuire, Sprite Symphony combines animation and projections with costumes and props made by the Royal Shakespeare Company, recomposed to invent a brand new contemporary fairy tale.

Davy and Kristin McGuire: Winners of this year's Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, Davy & Kristin McGuire are multidisciplinary artists whose work has included The Icebook and an atmospheric stage adaptation of popular fantasy novel, Howl's Moving Castle. Their latest commercial commission for Courvoisier was displayed at Harrods and their new theatre production The Paper Architect premiered in July 2012 at the Barbican. The McGuires critically acclaimed theatre projects have toured to 12 different countries over 3 continents and their art work has been exhibited, published and screened internationally. 

Snow White Through the (Hollywood) Years

Skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony … sound fa­mil­i­ar? Few have res­isted the le­gendary story of Snow White and her sev­en dwarfs, and many have told their own ver­sions of the tale. Here’s a look at the ori­gin of the fairest of them all, who’s re­peatedly cap­tured Hol­ly­wood’s heart in re­cent years.

I have such a huge backlog of Snow White posts! This is one of them: a dynamic timeline published by the LA Times which takes you through incarnations and retellings of Snow White, mainly in entertainment, since published by the Grimm's in their Household Tales. 

Unfortunately it's nowhere near comprehensive, though people who haven't followed the tale over the years may learn a few things. It jumps from 1812 to 1912 and the only "book" referenced is Bill Willingham's Fables.

Still it's fun to click through and take a look, though it's clearly missing a ton of published works and less popularly known films and series nods I would have like to have seen included.

You can see the timeline and take a hop, skip and jump through the popular history of Snow White HERE.

Le Cabaret Grimm

Starting today (April 8th) is a new mixed-discipline theatrical show is opening by The Performance Lab in Boston, called "Le Cabaret Grimm-a punk cabaret fairy tale (sans fairies)".

The show is unashamedly experimental with masks, puppets, circus acts, music and more thrown into the mix as they interpret some tales by the Brothers Grimm through a variety of Arts and styles, including steampunk, cabaret and burlesque. Music ranges from from R&B, to Tom Waits to Ska to the Dresden Dolls.

An article from wubr.org (which also has an interview you can listen to) explains the Director's thoughts behind melding the art forms on stage:

“There’s circus arts, and there’s burlesque and cabaret and all kinds of really fun alternative things going on in the city but people don’t really know about it — it’s all in segmented places,” Slavick explains. “And I want the Performance LAB to be a bridge between the mainstream arts community and the mainstream audience, and the fringe, experimental community in Boston. ”

Here's the blurb from the official website:

From somewhere between Paris, Berlin and the bowels of the Bowery comes Le Cabaret Grimm, a punk cabaret tale of loss, longing, and desire - with a healthy dose of irony. We've got sexy girls and boys, conjoined twins, demons, and talking chickens. We'll take you on a journey drawn from the Tales of the Brothers Grimm, with music, mask, dance, and spectacle, led by the great chanteuse Veronique du Blahblahblah.

Each night we are joined by special guest performers. We bring you music, burlesque, circus, drag and more, hosted by the extraordinary Johnny Blazes.

Welcome to Le Cabaret Grimm!

I can't find any information on the use of the fairy tales or even which ones are being used except for this quote which reads: "We’re using these fun, contemporary styles to draw in the audience” says Slavick, “but we’re combining them with classic tales that have a universal quality and resonate deeply.” (source: StageSource) I'm very curious as to which tales are incorporated and the few photos available don't give many clues but it's interesting to think of any fairy tales being presented this way. I wish the 'LAB' every success.

If you're interested and can get to Boston in time, the show runs through April 24th, 2010.

"Dark Fairy Tales" Poetry & Light Illumination Show/ "Diamond Tears" Exhibition (both UK)

Coming to Brentford (UK) for one performance on November 28th, 2009 is "Dark Fairy Tales" by the Theatre of Continuous Performance. I haven't been able to find much additional information about this show so I'll just copy the press release here for you:

Writer and director, Anjan Saha teams up with projectionist, Al Livingstone to present a magical enchanted world of Dark Fairytales at Waterman's Art Centre in London Road, Brentford.

Pioneering their self -styled, Theatre of Continuous Performance, where spoken word merges with light illuminations to create mesmerizing images, fairytales of Indian, African and European origin will be presented with a dark twist.

Featuring some of the best literary talents including poets and acclaimed performers Dzifa Benson, El Crisis, Philip Lawder, storyteller, Bhavit Mehta and Blues music guitarist and singer, Robert Hokum, Dark Fairy Tales, gives us a whole new interpretation of the dangers that might befall the unwary this Xmas!

"...Fairytales speak through beasts to explore common experiences - fear of sexual intimacy, terror and violence, injustice, and struggles for survival. The fairytales themselves, growing out of the spoken word, become part of legislating fabric, and by issuing warnings about what happens to kings and princesses, sharks and other beasts who don't keep their promises, reminds us to keep ours." (Marina Warner, writing for The Guardian)

You can book through HERE.

The images in this post are by Verena Paloma Jabs.

From her website:

"Verena creates child-like and seemingly innocent silhouettes of animals and figures, morphed with a digitally created background of imaginary landscapes, naïve wonderlands, and dark dreamscapes. Verena says, "I am fascinated by the innocent imagery of the pictorial illustrations which often accompany fairy-tales, while the narrative itself is often dark and uncanny. Being of English and Russian ancestry, and growing up in Germany before attending school and university in England, I have a keen interest in how different cultures mirror each other's stories and heritage. Living in an era in which advertising and visual media are overpowering our imagination for commercial purposes, fairy-tales as told to children still harbour a sense of humankind's most ancient fantasies, fears, and desires."

Verena has a new exhibition called "Diamond Tears", featuring the artwork shown in this post and more. It opened on November 13, 2009 at the Tatty Devine Brick Lane Gallery space in London. You can find more information about Verena and see more of her lovely work, which covers a wide range of media HERE.