Happy Endings

If you’re in need of some energy at the end of a long day at the Fringe, and you’re a sucker for fairy tales, Happy Endings is your ticket to satisfaction.

Reimagining familiar tales like Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, your host the Wolf (a fierce Fay Rocious) guides you through those stories in the context of finding a suitable date for Red (Amber Scates, who teeters perfectly on the edge of innocence). Perhaps ‘suitable’ isn’t the right word, as her options tend to run off with each other, until she finds the perfect man. Who is anything but…

The dancing is fluid and furious, the vocals from Scates are wonderful, and whilst the aerial work from the group is familiar, the fairy tale twists are well done. A diverse gender mix of performers are fabulously dressed (and occasionally, undressed), perverting childhood memories of our favourite fairy tale characters. The choreography is energetic and slickly executed under the lights and haze of the Octagon, spurred on by the raucous late-night audience.

The narrative is weaved terrifically into the acts – the story is simple, but there’s enough uncertainty and tension to lift your mind away from the spectacle to wonder what happens next.

It's an easy show to enjoy – non-stop entertainment, great performances that don’t take themselves too seriously, and the right amount of raunch without raising too many eyebrows.

Review by Mark Wickett

Photographer: K Darius.

To check out our round-up of Adelaide Fringe reviews, click here.