I guess the pick and mix clue was not only in the title of the play ('...and Darker Tales'), but also in the name of the theatre company. People's. Lots of peoples. However I still wasn't anticipating so many stories and so many performers and was delighted to be confronted with such huge variety. This is the Oxford People's Theatre's third production, and this time they had a cast of 50 with an age range from 9-90.

Instead of sticking with just one story, they took on 6 different stories all woven together by an overarching plot. 'And Darker Tales' suggested to me that there might be a couple of tales other than The Moon in there, so three at best. Co-Directors Lizzy McBain and Emma Webb doubled that expectation.

In other hands, that really could be a recipe for disaster; a play that is far too long, the stories too siloed, and most of the time the audience could be watching the cast try to funnel on and off the stage. It also really is a community theatre company as the co-directors stand by their mission that anyone could take part: there were no auditions, and roles were created for anyone who wanted to attend. That's bold, as it certainly presents plenty of challenges.

So somehow a large group of 9 year olds, 90 year olds, and many in-between, some (or possibly many) of whom hadn't had much theatre experience in the past, managed to seamlessly not only transition between the overarching story and the Grimms Tales themselves, but also in many cases change characters too, as they moved between being protagonists and supporting cast. The script, written by Emma Webb, really did flow effortlessly, with character quirks being explained when each had their story to share.

In addition, every gesture had purpose. As an audience member, my toxic trait is that I love to spy on cast who are on stage, but who aren't the centre of attention. I couldn't find a single pause of focus, let alone nose itch. If they weren't moving along with the rest, they were purposely paused which created incredible professional unity.

This moment of gushery can't be complete without mentioning the music (composed specifically for the play by Guy Hughes), which was just as eerie and imaginative as the set and brilliant costumes designed by Lizzy McBain (the bird lady being my favourite of them all, though the different stages of the moon were a close second.) In fact both the music and the costumes also fit into what I was saying at the beginning, which was so much variety.

This production was like a pack of liquorice allsorts: a real mixture, but all united in being covered in a little (to a lot) of darkness which was what bound it together so well. Darkness clearly wasn't the only binder: and an awful lot of time and team effort certainly contributed.