The Secret in the Wings

Mary Zimmerman’s The Secret in the Wings adapts a group of lesser-known fairy tales to create a theatrical work that sets their dark mystery against her signature wit and humor. Set in a basement that is also an enchanted forest, the framing story features a child and a frightening babysitter, an ogre with a tail – or is it a tale? As the babysitter reads from a book, the characters in each of the dark, enchanted stories materialize, with each tale averting disaster just as it looms to give way to the next one. As with her other theatrical creations, Zimmerman offers ample opportunity for creative costumes, props, sets and lighting to render the fairy tales in all their elemental and enduring power. Children may enjoy Zimmerman’s fairy tales, but it is adults who will find them the most evocative, fulfilling and visionary.