In this postmodernist reimagining of the timeless fairytale, a determined young girl is on a quest to escape the physical dimensions of a storybook that has held her in place for almost two hundred years. A new world beckons from somewhere beyond the covers that hold her fast. It promises freedom, possibility and change, not at all like the boring script assigned to her so very long ago. To a rightfully inquiring mind and a girl bursting with the spirit of adventure, the whole normative metanarrative structure of archaic literature is, quite frankly, so yesterday! New realities await — she can feel it! But first a ghost-silent forest, fixed between here and there, has to be crossed.
There are three frightful bears to encounter, of course, complete with whiffs of porridge and a confession of stolen beds. But nothing here is as one might expect, especially if one happens to be a cultured, educated girl. For Goldilocks has found herself swallowed up in an awakened forest, one where presence permeates even empty spaces, where silence breathes as loudly as sound, where what is real forms and reforms as casually as wind rustling unconcerned leaves, and where kismet is as present as wonder — or even fear. It teems with diverse life forms and the components of new truths, unlike anything populating the storybook forests of her day. There are machine elves, of all things; a Red Fox who challenges her preconceptions without ever saying a word to her directly; Old Trees and Angry Trees, ferocious all, whose blood-curdling screams terrify and accuse at the same time. And then there is the eponymous Bear — a supremely confident bear cub, no less — who, instead of gobbling her up as instinct might have him do, pledges to guide her through the alt-universe unfolding around her.
While his origin story might leave open the possibility that he is also a stuffed bear (perhaps magically animated), Goldilocks finds this of little significance, here where physical form might be but a construct. His propensity to exaggerate aside, Bear does sound informed, thanks to his very modern vocabulary — which she finds a refreshing departure from the formal diction required of her. He speaks confidently of things he perhaps should not know, and also has the ear of even the most threatening creatures, all using language that at least sounds like it is actively creating and shaping realities.
Still, striking out on one’s own is frightfully hard work. The utter aloneness one might feel in a strange new world where no one else is like you does invite despair. For the first time in her life Goldilocks knows what it is to feel “othered” — harangued as she is by angry trees who despise her for the very past she is trying to escape. And among the brambles, an entangling thicket of unsettling questions and self-examination.
Join Goldilocks on her astonishingly innocent journey. Dreams are dreamed, fears are faced, losses are accepted and tomorrows are envisioned. And at the far end of the forest, destiny and self-realization await.
Keywords: adventure, bears, change, destiny, dreams, fairytale, forest, Goldilocks, journey, kismet, normative metanarritive, othered, postmodern, postmodernist, promise, reality, self-realization, the three bears
Genre: Comedic Drama, Theatre for Young Audiences, Postmodern Fairytale
Acts: 1
Run time: 60 minutes
Suitable for all ages
Cast size: 7 actors
Male roles: 6
Female roles: 1
Other roles: 5
Casting notes: All characters are suitable for school age actors and/or adult actors. Opportunity to expand cast by adding animated trees to the forest, but two male speaking roles for trees are scripted. Trees are otherwise gender fluid.
