Last Christmas, Horla Theatre Company came to this venue and gave us a heart-warming adaptation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
This year, unfortunately, they don't save us from tears, as they present a macabre, unedifying and hard-to-follow bunch of fairytales from around the world.
Horla have plundered the oeuvre of the Brothers Grimm three times previously, and there is an unpleasant whiff of the remainder shelf here, with Grimm and non-Grimm stories all ending up looking, well, grim.
Balladine, the opening piece from Poland, sets the dispiriting tone. Firstly, there is some enjoyable scene setting from the six-strong cast of actor-musicians as a rich lord turns up unexpectedly, as rich lords are wont to do in fairytales.
Then, just when the story is about to conclude, the presentation collapses in on itself, occasioning a peremptory, unclear end. Snow White is afforded the same sort of short climactic shrift.
The problem is that adaptor/director Alistair Green seems to want his production to be a little bit of everything. It's slightly Avenue Q: Snow White is befriended by three cheeky-mouthed puppets instead of the customary number of dwarfs.
With its uneasily audience-conscious style, it's also partially panto, and there's an additional attempt at Kneehigh-type narrative innovation. With such a lot of elements vying for attention, it all ends up as a big jumble of nothing.
This is a shame, as the performers beetle industriously about the small space, which is attractively hung with fairy lights and decorated with hangers of costume changes. Liz Jadav has a nice line in malevolence and Michael Lovatt shows affable adaptability, morphing from Cow to Death to Dave the Puppet.
One closing question for the festive season: why do theatres insist on selling large, rustling packets of sweets?
Until 6 January (0870 060 6632)
Grimms - The Final Chapter
Trafalgar Studios 2 (formerly Whitehall Theatre)
Whitehall, SW1A 2DY
