Queens reign this weekend

EdmontonJournal.com – By Liz Nicholls, The Edmonton Journal

From Grimmer than Grimm gore to Darrin Hagen’s sequined voyage

Edmonton is a veritable fairyland this weekend. The anthemic “once upon a time” rings out from more than one stage; “happily-ever-afters” are a little harder to find.

Queens, they’re everywhere, clutching their crowns, plotting, pointing the royal finger, producing heirs, fending off pretenders. In one show, a queen with a hearty appetite plots to have her grandson for dinner — with a nice brown sauce. Yes, that would be Grimmer Than Grimm, which trawls through the catalogue of fairy tales assembled by a pair of kinky, 19th-century German brothers for the darkest, the weirdest, the goriest, the shriekiest.