Even in the history of musicals and today, there are prejudices about this genre: it’s just a show of cheap, catchy tunes. And it is not far from the truth – many musicals were really created for entertainment, so that, for example, those living in the shadow of the wars of the last century could forget their anxiety, which the geopolitical situation created in the lives of every citizen, even for an hour.
However, in parallel with entertaining musicals, there were also those that embodied the social, political and otherwise important aspects of human life of the given decade with incomprehensible symbolism and subtexts. One such work is Stephen Sondheim’s 1980s musical Into the Woods, based on James Lapin’s play of the same name.
In the musical, such well-known fairy-tale characters as Cinderella, Jack (with the long bean), Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Lettuce and the Witch meet, as well as more than one handsome Prince.
Two new characters – the Baker and the Baker – are the main and unifying characters in this story, and each of them has their own desire: the Baker and the Baker hope to conceive a child, Cinderella wants to attend the King’s Ball, and Jack hopes that his best friend, a goth able to provide milk for him and his mother. When the Baker and the Baker learn that their failed attempts to conceive a child are linked to the Witch’s curse, the two go on an adventure to break it.
Most likely, the appeal of fairy tales lies in their comforting essence: fairy tales create such worlds where there is only good and evil, right and wrong, white and black… Virtue is held in high honor, while vice is punished, the most passionate wishes come true and the prince comes to save the princess . Although these stories also reflect violence, loneliness, death, the main characters, the “good guys”, always win and live happily ever after.
I don’t need to tell you that life gets a lot more complicated and unpredictable as you grow up. However, this transition: from fiction to reality, from childhood to adulthood, from dependence to complete freedom is the very basis of the musical “Once in the forest…”.
At the end of the first part of the musical, the wishes and hopes of all the main characters have come true: Cinderella is with her prince, Jack gets his goatee back, the Baker and the Baker become parents, etc.
But what comes after the legendary words “and they lived happily ever after”?
In the second and, in my opinion, the most important part of the musical, a giant returns to the forest, ready to destroy and kill everything that stands in its way. Cinderella’s Prince finds love in other women, but the Baker and the Baker can’t stop arguing. No one really lives happily ever after…
But what is this musical trying to tell us?
First and foremost, it travels through the complex twists and turns of parent-child relationships and talks about the need to “launch” a child into the big world at the right moment.
The witch kept her daughter, Lettuce, in prison for 14 years, and the young woman is now around 20 years old. Suddenly, her mother finds out that Lettuce has met the Prince and wants to go out into the world with him. She becomes uncontrollably furious. And not about a man entering her daughter’s life, but the fact that Lettuce Leaf has allowed herself to shake the wall that the Witch built so carefully around her daughter.
Lettuce is no longer a child, she wants to see the world, but the Witch calls several times “children don’t listen!” and is too worried about the wolves and bears and people in the world to see that there are also hares and stags and princes in the world.
The fear of losing control over someone can lead to unintended consequences, and shielding a child from the world in spite of one’s fears can do the exact opposite – it can hurt the child.
Do you remember the Witch’s cry “Children don’t listen!”? This is the main theme of the musical, which throughout the story says that “children don’t listen” and “children must listen”. However, in the finale of the musical, this epithet turns into “children hear”, “children listen”.
In the 2013 HBO documentary “Six by Sondheim”, Stephen Sondheim talks openly about his difficult relationship with his mother, who suffered verbal abuse as a child.
No story comes out of nowhere and it is clear that the tale “Once upon a time in the forest…” is, if not biographical, at least an allusion to Sondheim’s experience.
The last song of the musical tells us to be careful with what we say, because the children are listening. It invites you to pay attention to your behavior, because children are also watching. And it says that no matter where your loved ones are, you are never alone. In conclusion, Maizniece says that people tend to leave us halfway to the forest. She tells us not to let it destroy us, because no man vanishes completely,” thus making us understand that the forest in this story is a metaphor for life.
The various, complicated adventures of fairy-tale characters in the forest are actually the difficulties we encounter when growing up, experiencing and living human life.
Latvijas Radio invites you to express your opinion about what you heard in the program and supports discussions among listeners, however, reserves the right to delete comments that violate the boundaries of respectful attitude and ethical behavior.
2024-02-08 06:33:54
#master #musicals #Stephen #Sondheim #relationship #children #parents
