“Careful the things
you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see.
And learn. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look
to you for which way to turn, to learn what to be. Careful before you say, ‘Listen
to me.’ Children will listen.”
Witch, Into the
Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine
Into the Woods gathers familiar
fairy tale characters like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, and places
them in an alternate world that credits the tales of origin but creates an
interconnected web and fresh perspective on the morals these tales teach. In
this fairy tale realm, the endings stray from the happy-ending utopia we are
used to hearing about, and plays with the reality of the lessons learned from
the tales.
Even the title
clues the audience in to the looming mysteries and trials awaiting the
characters. Just as fairy tale characters and plot points are ingrained through
repetition and revision, going into the woods is associated with a character
foraying into the dark and dangerous unknown where anything can happen. The
original oral versions and earlier editions of the Grimm's fairy tales seem to
harp on the many dangers that can befall children who disobey their parents and
explore where they aren’t supposed to, creating a sort of trope for the meaning
of the forest in tales and human understanding at large. The woods represent a
return to nature and animalistic instincts, a place where danger is abundant
and free from policing. Snow White, Little Red, Rapunzel, Hansel and
Gretel, and a great many other characters have found danger, isolation, refuge,
and a whole new world when they crossed over into the woods.
Each of the characters
at the outset of the musical has a specific desire that can only be satisfied
with a venture into the woods. At the confluence of the stories of the witch,
Cinderella and her stepsisters, Simple Jack and his mother, and Little Red
Ridinghood, we find the Baker and his wife. They wish to have a child and have
been trying desperately to no avail. The couple's desire becomes the epicenter
of action in the play, sucking other more familiar characters in and forcing
the audience to adjust how we perceive the motives of our favorite princes and
heroines alike. The insertion of the Baker and his barren wife feels like
a familiar fairy tale, the woman desiring to bear a child and magical
interference, but it is a construct of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s
making.
The wants of different
characters mimic the desires a fairy tale protagonist would introduce at the
onset of the tale, but the upheaval that ensues in the play not only takes a
stab at the interconnected society in the forest, but also at our own. We
mistreat and manipulate the tales to allegedly teach children about how to
navigate the world around them and censor their own desires without ever
considering what the fairy tale actually promises to our future generations.
Not every story will have a happy ending, and not all heroes are actually
heroic.
Further reading:
Ruth B. Bottigheimer:
Fairy Tales: A New History
Fairy Tales and Society: Illusion, Allusion, and
Paradigm
Grimms' Bad Girls & Bold Boys: The Moral
& Social Vision of the Tales
Maria Tatar:
Off With Their Heads! : Fairy Tales and the
Culture of Childhood
Jack Zipes:
Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of
Folk and Fairy Tales
Irresistible Fairy Tales: The Cultural and
Social History of a Genre
Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and
Relevance of a Genre
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