Grimm Tales for Young and Old - reviews of immersive show

What you need to know

A new immersive theatre staging of Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales for Young and Old has opened at the Bargehouse, Oxo Wharf, London. The production is adapted and directed by Philip Wilson from Pullman's versions of the Grimm folk tales and staged in a four-storey warehouse.

Audiences move between spaces and enter the worlds of six Grimm tales, including the well-known Hansel and Gretel, The Frog King and The Goose Girl at the Spring, and lesser-known tales The Three Little Men in the Woods, Thousandfurs and Faithful Johannes. Runs until 15 February.

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What the critics like

Wilson's production is "a magic box of glittering surprises, some eerie or grotesque, others startlingly lovely or absurdly comical", says Sam Marlowe in The Times. The tone is probably too murky for smaller children, but older ones and grown-ups will thrill to the creepy, shivery treats of this irresistible invitation to explore the darker corners of the imagination.

Grimm Tales' is a great night, "each of the stories relayed with love and invention by the two casts dotted about the Bargehouse", says in Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. The standard is high throughout, and the unfamiliarity of some of the tales makes the twists and turns of this strange, harsh medieval lore endearingly impossible to predict.

"Part of the pleasure of Wilson's production lies in encountering less well-known fairy tales and in coming across new details within the tales you might have thought you knew," says Natasha Tripney on The Stage. And the incredibly rich and evocative design makes the gorgeous venue just as engaging as the storytelling.

What they don't like

"Enjoyable as some of these six tales prove, none can begin to rival the ingenious beauty of the design," says Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard. And herein lies problem, because we long for some downtime to explore each delicious-looking place by ourselves, but instead we're hurried between scenes in a too-rigid manner.