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A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE
Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 5m plus ensemble
Mary Zimmerman
A vivid story woven from several lesser-known fairy tales, reflecting upon the darker and more dangerous undercurrents of childhood.
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.
The Secret in the Wings received its world premiere at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago on February 7, 1991. Directed by Mary Zimmerman, the production featured Laura Eason, Raymond Fox, Joy Gregory, David Kersnar, Stuart Rakeley, Philip R. Smith, Heidi Stillman, Andrew White and Meredith Zinner. The production was revived by Lookingglass in 2003 and then toured in 2004 and 2005 as a co-production between Berkeley Repertory Theater, the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, and Seattle Repertory Theater.
“Opening: Left in the Forest” MOTHER FATHER HEIDI MR. FITZPATRICK (TONY)
“The Three Snake Leaves” SNAKE-LEAVES PRINCESS THREE SINGERS BOY SEA CAPTAIN BOY’S SERVANT FATHER OF SNAKE-LEAVES PRINCESS
“The Three Blind Queens” THREE PRINCES THREE QUEENS AMBASSADOR NURSEMAID SON OF THE THIRD BLIND QUEEN
“Stolen Pennies” CHILD PAPA MAMA OTHER CHILDREN STRANGER
“Allerleira” TWO MEN ALLERLEIRA ALLERLEIRA’S COMPANIONS (LAURA, LOUISE, AND HEIDI) ALLERLEIRA’S FATHER ALLERLEIRA’S FATHER’S ATTENDANT KING SECOND KING KING’S ATTENDANT
“The Princess Who Wouldn’t Laugh” ROYAL DANCING COUPLES PRINCESS WHO WON’T LAUGH FATHER OF THE PRINCESS THREE SUITORS THREE LADIES-IN-WAITING
“Seven Swans, or Silent for Seven Years” FATHER OF SEVEN SONS SONS DAUGHTER ANDREW KING OF SILENT FOR SEVEN YEARS EVIL MOTHER
It is possible to perform this story with only 6 women and 6 men or expand the cast to a larger ensemble, if desired.
It is possible to perform this story with only 4 women and 5 men or expand the cast to a larger ensemble, if desired. Doubling suggestions are available in the script.
The corner of a basement and a deep dark forest, simultaneously.
“Captivatingly simple, disturbingly evocative and richly transgressive… a theatrical feast.” – San Francisco Chronicle
“Zimmerman has drawn on lesser-known European fairy tales to produce an 85-minute reverie of dark Freudian corners, fantastic enchantments, primeval emotions and fears… an imaginative, highly theatrical, compact and complex work.” – TheaterMania
“Based on several semi-obscure fairy tales and framed by a Home Alone meets Beauty and the Beast plot, The Secret in the Wings has manifold enchantments.” – Seattle Times
“Captivatingly simple, disturbingly evocative and richly transgressive, Secret is a journey into fantasy and nightmares framed as a dream – though the identity of the dreamer is one of its odder twists. It’s a theatrical feast of compelling interplays between set, lights, costumes and sound.” – San Francisco Chronicle
“Fairy tales with decidedly adult chills... Zimmerman's narrative leaves us hanging from the direst apogees throughout the story.” – L.A. Times
“The message embedded in her mythic journey: that what is most frightening ‘is only the most frightened.’” – Seattle Times
Making Theatre Magic – The Secret in the Wings at Emerson Stage
The Secret in the Wings – Curtin University Trailer
The Secret in the Wings – University of Illinois Chicago Trailer
Mary Zimmerman is a playwright and director of theatre and opera based in Chicago. She is the recipient of a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2002 Tony and Obie Awards for Best Director of a Play, and numerous Chicago Joseph Jefferson Awards (including Best Production and Best ...
by Mary Zimmerman