The Original Tale of Tales

“The Tale of Tales” is a 17th century collection of 50 stories by Neapolitan writer, Giambattista Basile.  An eclectic mix of folk and fairy tales, it’s less well known than later collections by people such as Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm.  Which is a bit unfair considering Basile provides us with older and wackier versions of stories like ‘Rapunzel’, ‘Cinderella’ and ‘The Golden Goose’.  Basile’s stories are often called ‘court tales’.  In other words, they were largely written for the amusement of wealthy grown-ups in Italian high society (and not for children).  They’re really bawdy, with copious references to the bodily functions, as you’ll see from these adaptations. 

So why adapt these stories for young ensembles?  I love the irreverence and unpredictability of the stories.  And their transgressive – or rebellious - spirit.  It’s a spirit I have often noticed at play when working with young ensembles, both undergraduate students and youth theatre groups. 

This Adaptation

This version is a series of eight short plays for young ensembles.   The overall script sets out to be flexible to the needs of student or youth theatre groups who, as is the case, may have anything from a small few to dozens of members looking for an acting role.  There are big parts as well as smaller roles.  There is also the option of actors playing multiple roles. 

Also, the scripts are not written just for young actors and have great possibilities for aspiring designers.  I hope that individual groups will find very creative ways to construct the various locations, costume, stage business, talking animals, characters and other dynamics in the stories.  The script offers some possibilities in terms of design (including sound), but these are suggestive rather than prescriptive.  The idea is for each group to find their own unique way of presenting the stories and build the dramatic worlds in a way that reflects their own skills, interests and (vitally) senses of humour. 

Check out the link to one of them below …