When Lisa Bany-Winters, the artistic director of Emanon Theater Company, decided to have her ensemble of actors play in “Rapunzel,” she had only childhood memories of the magical story about a hansome prince and a young woman with long hair.
Then she and the cast members started doing some research. They read many versions of the fairy tale and even watched a couple of adaptations, including one by Bullwinkle and Rocky, and they discovered the important role played by the witch’s garden.
So the Emanon stage adaptation includes a new character. He is a demon radish who is sent by the witch to make the woman who is pregnant with Rapunzel crave radishes. Her desire to eat these little red vegetables is so overwhelming that she is willing to give up her child to the witch in exchange for them.
Through improvisation the company also came up with other new characters, which include a big, hairy, non-threatening, lonely ogre and Bingo, who is a goofy kind of sidekick to the prince.
Their version includes plenty of slapstick comedy and jokes that play on the culture of kids today, such as Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo, for laughs.
One part of the play, however, is left to improvisation. When the prince goes off in search of Rapunzel, he stops at a number of towers before he finds hers and he never knows who lives in them. “He may hear someone say, `Welcome to McTower Drive-Through’ or someone who speaks in jibberish,” says Bany-Winters. “Anything can happen.”
The ending of Emanon’s version is unexpected too. “Rapunzel doesn’t fall madly in love with the prince and run off to get married at the end,” says Bany-Winters. “She’s only 16 and she’s going to do her own thing and just date the prince and maybe she’ll marry him and maybe she won’t.”
———-
More Top Picks Best Mono Block Amplifiers
“Rapunzel,” 1 p.m. Sundays through May 4, Emanon Theater Company, Mayer Kaplan Jewish Community Center, 5050 W. Church St., Skokie, $5, $3 for children or adults dressed as witches or royalty; 847-675-2200, ext. 178.