Belvoir goes into the woods
Image: Into The Woods at Belvoir St Theatre. Image: hero
Belvoir St Theatre in conjunction with Hayes Theatre Co brings a stellar cast and creative team together for an imaginative new production of Into The Woods.
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics and James Lapine wrote the book for Into The Woods, but the subplots and characters have been around for much longer than this 1986 stage musical. An amalgam of favourite fairy tales including “Cinderella”, “Rapunzel”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, and “Little Red Riding Hood”, Into The Woods is a kind of morality play with humour and sting.
The storylines of these various fairytales have been parsed and interwoven; disparate characters meet and their respective arcs intersect, sometimes fortuitously, sometimes to their detriment. The story looks at ambition, heroism, frailty, trust, love, family and magic.
Directed by Eamon Flack, this production by Belvoir/Hayes includes an impressive list of players: (in alphabetical order) Marty Alix, Stefanie Caccamo, Peter Carroll, Tamsin Carroll, Andrew Coshan, Lena Cruz, Tim Draxl, David Gardos, Esther Hannaford, Simon Holt, Shubshri Kandiah, Mo Lovegrove, Ava Madon, Rob Mallett, Anne-Maree Mcdonald, Justin Smith, Damon Wade, and William Zappa.
Tim Draxl is thrilled to be included in the above list. Despite a resume filled with roles in big name musicals, he has never – until now – had the opportunity to do this particular one.
“Into The Woods has been one of my favourite musicals since I was probably about 16, and “No One is Alone”, which is my favourite song from the show, was one of the first songs that I ever sang publicly as a singer. So I have a very long relationship with the show,” says Draxl. “It’s such a beautiful piece, I mean, it’s funny, it’s incredibly poignant, there are so many beautiful messages within the show that I think speak to everyone.”
Draxl plays Cinderella’s Prince and The Wolf. The cast are currently in rehearsals and having loads of fun.
“It’s an incredible cast,” says Draxl. “Tamsin Carroll as the witch is just one of the most beautiful things I think audiences will have ever seen.”
He describes the show as silly, farcical, with lots of sass, yet stunningly poignant at times.
“And it’s going to be camp!” he adds.
Draxl hasn’t worked with Belvoir since around 2004 and it’s an added treat to be working with them again.
“Of course, being at Belvoir, it’s a very restrictive space, it’s a very small theatre space and to put on this kind of an epic show creates its challenges and I think in those challenges, that’s where incredible art is created.”
