Written by Craig Lawson
GRIMM Arts Centre Melbourne
A BRILLIANTLY TWISTED TRIP INTO THE WOODS
Once upon a time has never looked quite like this. Shake & Stir Theatre Co’s GRIMM takes the fairytales we grew up with and sends them hurtling into a wickedly funny, thoroughly modern and sometimes deliciously dark new world.
Now playing at Arts Centre Melbourne, GRIMM is a fast-paced, high-energy reimagining of familiar stories, including Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rumpelstiltskin. At first, the tales appear to unfold individually, before the characters and their stories collide and weave together in clever, unexpected ways.
The talented cast of four, Aljin Abella, Helen Cassidy, Nelle Lee and Henry Rollo, move effortlessly between numerous roles. With rapid character changes, brilliant comic timing and an enormous amount of energy, they make this wild collection of heroes, villains and familiar fairytale faces feel completely their own.
The production continually surprises, with characters appearing from unexpected corners of the theatre and frequently breaking beyond the confines of the stage. There is plenty of audience engagement, including a gloriously camp Wolf who takes his fabulous rendition of Hungry Eyes out into the crowd. It is playful, unpredictable and had us laughing out loud.
The modern references are especially clever. One story explores the endless fight against ageing with a red-light therapy mask and gua sha tool, transforming a familiar fairytale obsession into something instantly recognisable and hilarious. These contemporary touches never feel simply added for effect. They help bring the characters and their desires into the present day while preserving the darkness at the heart of the original tales.
Visually, GRIMM is a feast. The fashion is fantastic, with frills, beautiful embellishments and sumptuous fabrics creating a lavish, darkly bohemian fairytale world. Every costume adds to the personality of the character wearing it, and the rapid transformations make the behind-the-scenes work feel even more impressive.
The staging and lighting are equally brilliant. The atmospheric set transports the audience into a strange, unsettling world, while dramatic lighting shifts let the production move seamlessly from outrageous comedy to something far darker. Something is always happening, whether onstage, among the audience, or emerging unexpectedly from the shadows.
GRIMM doesn’t simply retell these well-known stories. It pulls them apart, mixes them together and rebuilds them with an entirely new personality. It is rude, irreverent and unapologetically foul-mouthed, so this is certainly not the storybook version for young children. This is fairytale storytelling with the sweetness stripped away and the mischief turned all the way up.
Wildly imaginative, visually fabulous and brilliantly performed, GRIMM turns the fairytales we thought we knew completely on their heads. It is twisted, theatrical and tremendous fun. Brilliant!
GRIMM is now playing at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio until 12 September 2026.
🎟️ Book tickets via Arts Centre Melbourne:
https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2026/theatre/grimm
Presented by Shake & Stir Theatre Co.
Photography by Cameron Grant https://parenthesy.com.au/
