The Christmas Tree | Little Red Riding Hood

The Fir Tree

The fairy tale that has arguably created the most famous literary tribute to the Christmas tree: ‘The Fir Tree’. A fairy tale about a tree that longs for the future and, in doing so, misses out on the present – a story that takes on a whole new meaning in this age of climate change.

Andersen tells the story of a career that could scarcely be recounted in harsher terms:

An adolescent who mistakes the world of appearances for reality, who trades the present for a promise and realises that the promise offers no way back. The applause dies down, the decorations are taken down, the tree is banished to the loft – only when it lies there, worn out and forgotten, does it realise what the forest was.

Little Red Riding Hood

What a smart little girl, the very picture of innocence – what could possibly go wrong … Well, we were urged to remove this fairy tale from the children’s programme: distraught parents subsequently had far too much to explain to their little ones. Read aloud, it’s quite edifying. What one thinks of it, of course, remains a private matter. But if you perform it word for word, it becomes explosive. For this wolf really does have only one thing on his mind – that’s right, the grandmother; what else did you think? And how does he devour her in bed? That’s right: in a single gulp; we’d be happy to act it out for you. No one, not even the audience, emerges from this fairy tale as sinlessly virginal as they went in. Let Little Red Riding Hood lead you into temptation, stray from the path for a moment, and discover the wolf within you!

• For adults only – admission from 14 years of age