It is a show that was billed as impossible to stage. How do you transform an actor into a werewolf and back without CGI? Well, the New Vic has risen to the challenge—and what a sensational spectacle it is.
Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves was written as a short story 40 years ago and is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Co-director Theresa Heskins has edited the version which Carter adapted into a radio play and calls it “theatre meets circus meets spoken word”.
That does not do it justice; circus gives the wrong impression, because the production is more acrobatics than circus. And five areas of the New Vic’s in-the-round auditorium are set aside for actors to narrate the story as well as delivering sound effects, an idea which ramps up the sheer terror of the tale.
Unlike the versions of Little Red Riding Hood written by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, Carter’s version has a wolf pack rather than a lone wolf. Four international circus artists, Matthias Camilleri, Gabrielle Cook, Callum Donald and Jimmy Wong, are little short of incredible as they contort their lithe bodies around Chinese poles and silks.
They look more like monkeys than wolves as they scamper around the auditorium. Their most breathtaking feat is to drop from the top of a pole and somehow control their slide so that they end up only a couple of inches off the floor.
For the most part, the aerial action, the responsibility of co-director Vicki Dela Amedume, combines seamlessly with the theatrical as the story unfolds.
Danielle Bird gives a captivating display as Red, the adventurous girl who struggles to heed the advice not to stray from the path as she walks to her grandmother’s house. Bird has experience of working in circus and uses it to the maximum in the final sequence when she proves to be the equal of gentleman-turned-wolf Sebastian Charles.
Lorna Laidlaw is winsome as Granny, while Tanya-Loretta Dee, last seen at the New Vic earlier in 2024 playing Jan in Amanda Whittington’s Ladies Down Under, is impressive as Red’s mother. Dan Parr completes the cast as Hunter, adding a touch of danger to the production.
Daniella Beattie, whose work as the New Vic’s resident lighting designer can be taken for granted, is at the top of her game with atmospheric, affecting lighting. James Atherton ‘s music is haunting, a rock rhythm increasing the suspense as the horror of Red’s situation unfolds.
In truth, there is not a lot of story in The Company of Wolves. There are occasional laughs, which help to lighten the tension. But mainly, you sit on the edge of your seat excited and sometimes dazzled by what you are seeing.
The final aerial sequence goes on a bit too long as the story explores who is the predator and who is the prey when Red and the wolf gyrate 20 feet in the air. Overall, though, this is a fascinating production the likes of which I doubt I will see again in my lifetime.