This weekend, the Tafeng Musical Theater will put on something for the kids,
a stage adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood set to the music of George
Gershwin. The children's theater group has adapted the classic Grimm fairy
tale to a modern, Taiwanese context, telling the tale of a little, red
hat-wearing elementary school girl who one day decides to skip class to go
see her grandmother, whom she misses dearly. Along the way she runs into
some street thugs and other dissipated city types, before finally getting to
grandmother's house only to find, well you know the story, and we don't want
to give away all the new surprises.
For music, the majority of the accompaniment will come from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, but selections from Porgy and Bess and other compositions
will also be included. The performers will also sing along, using newly
written lyrics (in Mandarin) to tell the tale and move the action along. The
production comes as Tafeng's third production so far. All have related
children's stories through performance and classical music, the last being
Tchaikovski's Swan Lake.
Performances of Little Red Riding Hood will take place at Taipei's National
Theater tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at 7:30pm. There will also be matinee
performances tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm. Tickets cost between NT$300 and
NT$1,000 and are available through ERA ticketing.
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