Snow White Beauty Queen

A talking mirror fails to give a satisfactory answer to the question ‘Who is the fairest of them all?’ and so the jealous stepmother plans to get rid of her stepdaughter. However, the stepdaughter manages to flee and ends up with seven dwarves, who are happy to offer the young woman shelter, provided she does the housekeeping. But the stepmother searches for her, and finally they manage - wait, stop, we’ve heard this version of Snow White a million times. Does this really still work in the 21st century?

Nicolas Stemann has given the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale a complete overhaul and catapults it into the frequently absurd daily life of modern parents and children: ‘Beauty craze, organ donations, climate crisis, racism - Stemann has beefed up the kids’ fairy tale into a Zeitgeist comedy … His seven performers parody and rap, they sing … and populate a stage where it is easy to suddenly drop from enchantment into reality.’ (Spiegel Online)

‘Fairy tales have always contained a dark core, which is here exposed, amidst loads of fun.’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

‘Stemann’s version employs both anarchical nonsense and a loving look at the woes children suffer, lifting the genre to hitherto unknown heights.’ (Nachtkritik)