Fairytale: 20/20 – Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Fairytale: 20/20, devised and performed by choreographer, Sheenru Yong, and actor, Sara Lessmann, shows the creative process as two live performers try and transfer their skills into filmmaking. Opening with a typewriter sound effect and take 68 ¼, both Lee and Jung describe their usual roles in the creative process and what they bring when devising a piece of art.

They are aiming to make a film called Happily Ever After, but before they can they need to agree what “happily ever after” actually means in order for them to capture it. It’s also important that whatever they produce isn’t pretentious as they want to avoid that. It quickly becomes clear that neither of them really know what they’re trying to achieve with the end product, so they go out to get input from others on what “happily ever after” is.

Scrabble tiles are used to hint at deeper meanings as we hear various philosophies on life and descriptions of regret. Cynical views of the falseness of fairy tales and the lies of happily ever lead Lee and Jung to creating their story about a storyteller and a pilot.

Shadow theatre, masked performances and beautiful footage are used to add depth to this sweet story as it is live edited to try and make it what Lee and Jung want to produce. Philosophical discussions about free will and if something happens to you, what happened to your free will, add a poignancy as the story gradually becomes sadder and sadder, before Lee and Jung accept that they are literally walking blindfolded towards an unknown destination.

Fairytale: 20/20 is an interesting insight into the creative process of devised work. Showing the disagreements that occur when different creatives come together, what it is like to work on a small budget and the core of enjoyment and joy that comes with creating art that is always there, this is a piece with lots of potential which is worthy of further development.

Fairytale: 20/20 is being streamed by Edinburgh Fringe until 22nd August 2021. Tickets are available here https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/fairytale-20-20  

Reviewer: Donna M Day

Reviewed: 17th August 2021

North West End UK Rating: ★★★★