Wrongsemble take the ugly sisters to the people
Traditionally the ugly sisters have been the perennial villains in Cinderella but maybe it’s so quite so simple is the idea behind a new show from Wrongsemble
The Leeds based company set themselves up to make work for families, and The Not So Ugly Sisters takes a look at the classic fairy tale from their perspective for the very first time.
Written and directed by their founder Elvi Piper, sisters Dolly and Barb are in their northern hair salon as kid sister Cindy prepares to marry her prince charming, but they’ve not been invited to the wedding.
This bittersweet musical retelling of a story familiar to every child (and adult) aims to make us think about the sisters in a very different way. The two hander with a new cast is heading out on the Red Ladder Local circuit of community venues the radical theatre company created to bring productions to new and non-traditional audiences in the places where they live.
Out Yorkshire Editor Paul Clarke spoke to Elvi about why she wanted to hear from these not so ugly sisters and the rewards of taking a show to venues not usually set up for theatre.
Why tell this beloved story through the eyes of the much-maligned sisters?
The idea was that we never hear their story, surely they weren’t just these horrible pair of people, there was something going on for them too. It was quite inspired at the time by the way the media were responding to Meghan Markle when it was written in 2019, 2020. The way she had gone from being this princess that everyone loved to suddenly being the biggest villain in the media overnight.
What is it trying to say to young audiences and the adults who are with them?
The big thing that resonated with me during that time was there seemed to be a real lack of kindness, and since then we’ve all lived through a global pandemic where we’ve seen the best and worst of people in that time. The kindness it can bring out in people, and just how scary the media can be so weirdly, and sadly, I think that theme is very relevant.
So, it’s subtly challenging the often simplistic fairy tale versions of morality?
This idea of having goodies and bad guys, villains and heroes, things are just not that black and white. We’re really keen to find new ways of seeing the world through the stories that we tell.
What do you hope people will take away from the show?
The overarching theme is kindness, not judging a book by its cover, we don’t judge people by how they look, and the way the media talk about them. Ultimately, it’s a story about sisterhood, friendship, kindness and not being defined by other people’s opinions of you. That is a really simple message for young people – you can be whoever you want to be.
I’ve seen the show and there is something fun about the sisters picking up an everyday object like a hairdryer in their salon and singing into it.
I love the idea that everyday items you have around you, or in your world, can be played with and tell stories. You can pick up a box, or hairbrush, and that can be a toy to tell a story with as well as a beautifully made puppet, or a carefully crafted costume. How do we find these ordinary spaces and make them magical?
You did a run of theatres last year, and now you’re touring it on the Red Ladder Local circuit, which means the cast and crew will be lugging the set into community centres and working men’s clubs.
It was always the plan for this show, and it has all happened back to front as 2020 happened, so it couldn’t happen as we planned. We want this work to get to as many different people as possible because we like to make work that is adaptable. The show was always designed to go out to community venues as well as theatres. We wanted to feel like a beautiful space, it’s full of pastel colours, but also a space that wasn’t totally alien.
How so?
Most people have been to the hairdressers or a barber shop, so they have a relationship with that space. It is a space where people tell stories, and where people go to gossip, talk about their lives and read the gossip mags. It felt like a natural space where stories are told.
It’s all well and good going into non-traditional spaces, but will the quality suffer in smaller venues?
This tour is quite gruelling as we are doing community venues, a few theatres, church halls, so it’s going everywhere. You will see the same quality show at Leeds Playhouse on the main stage as you would at Gipton Working Men’s Club, it is important that everyone has the same time at the theatre.
Red Ladder Local is a fantastic platform for companies but why take the decision to join this more demanding circuit?
Not everyone goes to their local theatre, that’s not the space where they go to socialise and interact, so we have to go to where people are. More than ever now people are connected to their communities and want to celebrate great things happening in those spaces.
And there’s still a feeling that many people feel that theatre in a more traditional space is not for the likes of them.
Things like ticket prices can be a huge barrier for people, if you are not sure it is for you then you don’t want to spend a lot of money in case you don’t like it, and we are competing with Netflix and Disney Plus. We have to give people value for money and make it as accessible as possible so it’s affordable and you can bring the whole family and it doesn’t break the bank. How do we welcome new people to decide if theatre is for them unless we make it nice and easy for them to see it in the first place? And it’s great for us otherwise we just play to the same people and it makes our work so much richer when we create new audiences.
I’ve often thought panto is often the gateway for many people into live theatre, so whilst this is not panto do you hope that will be true for people coming to this show to think theatre is for me, or better still for someone in the audience to think I could do that.
I really hope so as that would be the dream scenario to come out of this. I always say with panto that love it or hate it does something that very few other bits of theatre can do. It welcomes every age, every family, every background, every experience. I always want Wrongsemble’s work to be like a great panto, so the youngest member of the family, or nana or grandad, all laugh at different jokes. They all had a great time and are all talking about it on the journey home.
For tour dates starting from Sunday 2nd April go to www.wrongsemble.com