May 6th – June 5th, 2022
Brighton Fringe, Streaming

Being online for the 2022 Brighton Fringe is proving to be an avant garde experience and I’m only into my third show. ‘Disenchanted: a cabaret of Twisted Fairy tales’ is the cabaret written and performed by the outspoken Eliane Morel, it was an hour of Fairy Tales extravagance’s and gave dedication to one Madame d’ Aulnoy who it was said to have coined the term ‘fairy tale’ back in the 17th Century.

The story began in Paris in 1699 with a little black and white footage and a voice introducing us to the time. The play included a high kicking feeling in its Cabaret direction. And its visual accomplishments were tenfold for getting a across its themes with a very plush looking Eliane wearing black feathers and a mask. And for the first sweet rendering of said Fairy Tales it referred to Snow White with a spit screen conversation with the magical mirror.

Her prowess carried through the acts with reverence, completion and beauty. The scene changes offered up some very illuminating character’s whose ideas were in the forms of mural paintings and photographic wonderment; pictures from mansion halls to bedroom’s concise with walls and backdrops. She grabbed us with swift tempo and in the elaborate presentation with which each tale was told we began to wonder what (apart from its enthusiasm) kind of angle it might take. Mostly following the originals there was in it the said completion; a world where we could forget ourselves. In its brevity we found everything that a play can possibly adhere to. Taking us where magical things occurred from Eliane’s artistry.

The characters seemed to be participating in a larger journey that took its (metaphorical) curtain calls and prophetic poetry from the enhancement of placing operatic vocals and titillating narration. And at every turn of character the songs became a fusion of genres from Eastern folk dance music to capable operatic overflowing. Every media was used in the representation that stood out in its finery. And the wonderful visuals that were so many they cut the coupling plots and the old stories were told afresh and reverently, with excitement and veering.

We were hers, as she became one step closer to familiarity; she clawed at us, and became our friend, holding us in suspension with a spreading of details that she made inclusive. Speaking English with a French accent or doing a London cockney, with traceable movement’s made by such fusion in writing, like following bread crumbs.

Eliane’s professional talents include: singer/actor/writer, and with great fluency on screen she used all three bringing all of it to the table. Fun, dark (sexy), garb changes, and a use of Fairy Tales to make a cabaret of things. I found it very enthrallingly entertaining, at a pace where there was no time to switch off, you wouldn’t want to, intelligent and funny, artistry oozing from every corner, and a story worth telling.

From Snow White to Red Riding hood it compelled with written and acted benevolence. She was it all and she climbed through every story she could think of. Mixing with enthusiasm she gave a voice to the interplay of realities to bring theatre out of itself and to fit large expectations out of the very walls and backdrops in its far reaching semblance on the fun of these Tales that is at their heart.

Daniel Donnelly