The Grandmothers Grimm @ Greenside Riddles Court

Like many a tale gone by, The Grandmothers Grimm begins on a dark, dark night, many years ago. A young woman, Marie Hassenpflug, has snuck out to join the Grimm brothers in the final editing stages of what would become the most historically significant collections of children’s stories ever to be written. Yet her name – and the identities of women behind many of the anthology’s folk tales – will be afforded none of the notoriety of the world’s most famous literary brothers, and will be consigned to silence for hundreds of years to come.

Following a successful debut at the 2017 Edinburgh Horror Festival, Some Kind of Theatre’s The Grandmothers Grimm makes a return to the Edinburgh Fringe  to shed light on Hassenpflug’s contribution to the anthology, as well as the often overshadowed origins of childhood staples like Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood.

Written and co-directed by Emily Ingram, The Grandmothers Grimm re-centers the voices of the women that are notably absent from the Grimm brothers' original anthology. The show is ultimately a story about the power of stories and those afforded the privilege to tell them. Creative yet simple staging reinforces the universal quality of familiar narrative tropes of wolves and woodcutters, bathing the stage in bursts of primary colours that allow playful moments of light humour – as well as some fittingly gruesome gags – to land well.

Whilst the cyclical structure of the play can, at times, feel somewhat repetitive, Ingram’s writing is nonetheless a bold and moving tribute to the authors whose stories were stolen, raising pertinent and probing questions about the ethics of authorship and emotional labour. The Grandmothers Grimm leaves the audience with the distinct impression that the play has stopped on the edge of something much bigger: an older and darker tale of voices still waiting to be heard.

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The Grandmothers Grimm, Greenside @ Riddles Court (Thistle Theatre), until 27 Aug, 6.25pm, £9.50-12