A Fairytale For Adults Only

The Brothers Grimm's classic folktale Snow White has been revisited many times in popular culture since it was first published more than two centuries ago. But while the intriguing tale covers many of the human condition's darker impulses, very few of these revisits have been self-described as being "bloody and brutal as deer-kill".

This is precisely the vibe that the new La Boite and Opera Queensland (under the auspices of Brisbane Festival) production Snow White is setting out to capture — focussing on the treachery, the betrayal and the blurred boundaries between good and evil rather than cute dwarves singing saccharine work songs.

"First and foremost, don't bring the children!" 

"First and foremost, don't bring the children!" laughs Stephanie Pickett, who plays Snow White in the new production. "That's actually the slogan of the show, so that's probably the main difference. It's a fairy tale in a loose sense but it's really dark and totally reinvented — you could probably say in the vibe of Edward Scissorhands. It's dark, it's twisted but also really cool — there are a lot of really important themes and imagery that arise throughout the play, and it asks a lot of really important questions. I think it probably relates more to the original Grimm version of the tale rather than the Disney version, that's for sure.

"It's been totally reinvented: it follows the established storyline to some extent, but we've got a brilliant playwright Suzie Miller onboard - she's actually a librettist - whose tightened all the writing and made it amazing. And it's been totally composed with all new music as well, which is really exciting."

Naturally playing Snow White means Pickett has a pivotal role in proceedings (notwithstanding any time spent in an apple coma).

"There's only four people in the cast, so it's really evenly split throughout the show between the four characters," she tells. "There's the Queen, the Mirror, the Huntsman and I, and it's quite intense for all of us. But I guess playing the title role I want to do a good job and do the character justice — own it, I guess, so I'm just trying to do the best that I can at that."

Pickett can usually be found fronting local folk-pop outfit Ella Fence, so she's no stranger to the stage, although this new outlet has involved a steep learning curve.

"It's been an incredible professional development exercise for me to undergo," she enthuses. "It's been so much fun, but there are definitely some things that I can bring back to being frontwoman of the band and that kind of thing. Being part of a production like this is incredible — we've got so many people onboard, there's like choreographers and a drama tech and someone who's composing all of the music and writing all of the lyrics and words and that kind of thing.

"It's awesome to be a part of something that's so structured like that, because you can bring skills back to your own show as well as apply new skills to this work too. It's been a really cool learning experience."