Further Than South Park

“What's creepy is how they get cleaned up,” Yunyu states. “The origins are quite dark. I mean, Cinderella involves toe amputation.” When the Singapore-born former triple j Unearthed winner Yunyu brings her latest multi-arts show to the stage she will taking the fairy tales we all love (or loath) and giving them a damn hard twist. Indeed Twisted Tales is not just a 'concept concert' but a Manga-assisted dive into the murkier depths of these archetypal yarns.

“They travel across cultures, which makes them extra creepy,” she suggests. “It's like people from every part of the world, with big differences and big distances, still recording the same tale. I mean, Cinderella has its origins in the Middle East and China. So, it's quite bizarre. I mean, how could the different cultures have done this? It's like they had internet a very long time ago.” Of course one of the things that Yunyu is doing with Twisted Tales is yanking fairytales into the internet age. However, this is no crude modernisation. “One of the contributing factors was the stories that my Dad used to tell me. He used to corrupt every single ending and so when I was in school my version of Three Little Pigs ended with them hiring the Godfather. Romeo & Juliet had mobile phones and sometimes they didn't die. Sometimes they sued the mobile phone company.”

Although on the surface Twisted Tales is a concert with added comic visuals, Yunyu is keen to enrich the experience with as much juicy subtexts as possible. “We wanted to troll the Disney culture, y'know that kinda world where Cinderella just waits around for the Prince. But y'know he's not coming. He doesn't even exist,” she laughs.  “We feel like we're the absolute trolls of Disney brainwashing. Actually that was the most fun part of the project, to throw some light onto the kinda mass political correctness of Disney and the allergy to anything mildly of contention or sexual.” By incorporating the work of bestselling Manga artist Queenie Chan, Yunyu is looking to push the envelope out a little more. “Let's go further than South Park ever dared go,” she says with obvious energy. “Queenie wanted to create this really bright harmless universe that was kinda like adult candy.”

Bringing theatre, music, a seven-piece band and live VJ together was, for Yunyu, a natural progression. As someone who “grew up” on Manga she was keen to explore where the art could take the stories and the songs. “It helps to illustrate where the characters are coming from and going to. Y'know, the fairy tale universe is very otherworldly and we're trying to bring this otherworldly world to our universe but still have a sense of intrigue.” Both the album and now the concert, Yunyu argues, are not so much an adulteration but a reclamation of fairy tales. “These stories were originally designed as entertainment for adults. I dunno what happened but they became entertainment for kids, which is sometimes pretty disturbing. And yeah, the temptation to go Jungian or Freudian was very difficult to resist.” Whether you prefer Cinderella with missing toes or not, Yunyu's Twisted Tales are designed to make the sprinkling of fairy dust just that little bit more mindbending.

WHAT: Yunyu's Twisted Tales

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 30 June, 8pm Carriageworks.