Into The Beanstalk

Into the Woods (1987) links several familiar family fairy tale stories, crossing them over with one new story which is what glues the whole musical together, instead of having separate fairy tales on their own. ‘The new story endeavours to carry those tales into an adult realm without stripping their archetypal characters of their (initially) child-based sensibilities.’(Knapp, 2009) An audience ember however may wonder when the shows ‘once upon a time’ basis will soon enough be compromised by its adult themes. Three stories are what initiate the action, one is Cinderella, another Jack and the Beanstalk and the last one being the authors invention. A story about The Baker and his Wife who live next door to the Witch, the couple find themselves
off completing a scavenger hunt looking for items (Sondheim experienced these from his youth) to achieve the curse of a barren family to be lifted from them and their home and for them to have a child.

‘The first decade of the twenty-first century Sondheim and his collaborators continued to explore the limitations of conventional narrative & to find new possibilities for meaning in unconventional structures.’ (Gordon, 2015) Into the Woods gives us a bunch of adults and adolescents who behave oddly and undergo growth experiences by going into the woods, their first taste of the world beyond home and family. ‘Illustrate that nothing goes happily ever after, but also reassuring the audience that “No one is alone”.’ (Kenrick, 2010) You realise with a generic fairy tale love is always a factor and the happily ever after always comes towards the end, however, Into the Woods includes no conventional examples of romantic love, the love of a fairy tale is what engrosses the audience into the stories. The term “love” is virtually restricted to its rather bitter and insincere charterers I.e.
the Witch, Cinderella’s Stepmother and her Prince, most of these relationships are more often parent-child relationships. The characters situations in one fairy tale share features or are included somehow in another fairy tale, each story nevertheless complete and self-sufficient. However, The Baker and his Wife never interfere with the stories that the items belong to, although they look like they are going to, they never do so. The Baker plays out pre-existing roles in two of the other stories i.e. rescuing Red from the Wolf and buying Jack’s cow for five magic beans. Naturally an individual fairy tale is clear demonstrations of cause and effect ‘presenting actions and their consequences within a closed system in which those consequences will last “ever after’ (Knapp,2009) What is most important is the way the show undermines the conventional fairy tale story by showing the audience how different real life is from this fantasy life in these insular far-off
kingdoms.