Don't Stray From The Path ****

Photo: electric pedals

Don’t Stray From the Path devised by The Wonder Club is a part of the Old Vic Tunnels’ Vault Festival, and exemplifies the exciting performance Vault aims to celebrate combining theatre, music, circus, puppetry and more. The Wonder Club paves your way into this imaginative reworking of the Red Riding Hood Fairytale as a promenade performance.

The Old Vic Tunnels are a must see venue if you haven’t been yet; a storage space previously used by British rail, it has come on since it first opened. I used to usher for the Old Vic Tunnels whilst it was still a damp labyrinth but for Vault it has been transformed into a series of much more intimate spaces for individual shows. Wandering around this series of eclectically decorated rabbit tunnels, it still hasn’t lost its deliciously dark charm.

Wonder Club use this space to its fullest extent, paying intense attention to detail. It feels as if one has walked into a surrealist painting. You enter a distorted version of a magical forest, each element of it an artwork in its own right: a miniature house hangs suspended with holes in which you can poke your head, women dressed as rabbits sway ceaselessly and silently before carrots with tear stained expressions, a man shouts advice at you working up a sweat on a stationary bike...it is all as perverse as fairytale worlds really are. The things to discover are endless, and then you realise: no wonder red riding hood strays from the path.

Bubbling beneath the sense of wonderment is the cautionary tale. Your individual journey is interrupted occasionally by Red’s story, told in an extremely post-modern way. Red (besides the narrator-like character) is the only other speaking actor, and feels extremely forced, forcing what we’re very aware is a script into this world without a fourth wall. Don’t Stray From The Path toes the line between narrative and reality, as these characters which walk amongst the audience are aware of the performance scenario and their sense of conscious: the Wolf could eat an audience member rather than Red for example. It is a disturbingly revelatory comment made by Wonder Club to know that although the huntsman may be an ordinary audience member, any audience member could also be the wolf. The ensemble transform from entrancing women suspended gorgeously in mid-air to primordial creatures, which reflects the lesson learnt about the nature of humanity here.

Don’t Stray From The Path opens with a narrator like character gauging the audience response to pieces of advice; ‘Don’t talk to strangers – pass it on!’ exemplifies the ironic tone this production possesses. More significantly, it reflects the evolution of the cautionary tale i.e. that nowadays we don’t listen to advice like this. Admittedly, I was drawn to the bluesy, sensually played Wolf before I was aware of his character, which considering the connotations of his character, exemplifies the flaw in this contemporary attitude to advice. Yet altogether the threat which breathes in each separate element is never wholly realised. A sense of climax occurs as the Wolf chases Red using the actors and set in a thrilling interlude set against a palpitating song mainly consisting of the word ‘run’. But from here, the denouement is unfulfilling, the story strays from itself. Although the level of audience engagement is high, this isn’t taken advantage of; what this promenade performance is missing is simply an ending.

Don’t Stray From The Path really exemplifies the transportive quality of theatre that we love to become immersed in, and this show possesses a greater magnetism than the majority of naturalistic theatre we’ve become accustomed to watching. It’s a shame that this sort of theatre is still kept ‘underground’ because Don’t Stray From The Path was an eye-opening experience, not just a show. The Wonder Club has a diamond in the rough here, that only needs some polishing to shine for what it’s worth.