Edmund Newell

Anglican priest, writer and speaker

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Grimm Tales

An original, entertaining and thought-provoking production that explores the spirituality of Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel.

Using Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s marvellous adaptations of the brothers Grimm’s classic fairy tales, Grimm Tales weaves together story-telling by Jeany Spark (of BBC1’s Wallander), songs by the award-winning team of Nick Bicât and Philip Ridley, and reflections by Edmund Newell, Sub-Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. The performance is suitable for adults and older children and lasts about 75 minutes (based on telling three of the four possible stories), with no interval.

Grimm Tales was first developed for a St Paul’s Institute event about children’s spirituality at the Royal Foundation of St Katharine, London, in January 2008. It was performed later that year at St Paul’s Cathedral, with readers including  Andy Hamilton (BBC Radio 4’s Old Harry’s Game) and Lynda Baron (Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in BBC’s Open All Hours), and at the 2008 Greenbelt Festival. A revised version received a sell-out first performance at the 2010 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.

Changing the tales from moral fables to parables.

Church Times

 
Far from Grim(m)! This illuminating and engaging performance reveals the enduring power and potency of folk and fairy tales. How the Grimm brothers imbued these stories with Christian symbolism was a revelation. From henceforth Snow White's red apple takes on a different hue!

Tish Francis, The Story Museum

 
This is the kind of imaginative production that makes story-telling such a sparkling experience. The combination of story, reflection and wonderful music makes Grimm Tales thoughtful, spiritually nourishing and fun – a winning combination!

John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford

  • Jeany Spark

  • Edmund Newell

  • Nick Bicât

  • Philip Ridley

  • The musicians
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    Jeany Spark is best known for her portrayal of Linda Wallander, daughter of Kurt Wallander (played by Kenneth Brannagh), in BBC TV’s BAFTA award-winning detective series Wallander. Jeany graduated with a First in English from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 2004. Having discovered acting while at Oxford (much to the chagrin of her tutors), she trained at RADA, graduating in 2007. Since then she has worked as an actress on stage and in television and film. Stage appearances include Viola in Twelfth Night at the Theatre Royal Norwich, and Lucy Davenport in Waste at the Almeida Theatre, London. On television, she has appeared in Lewis, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and The Thick of It, the BBC1 television comedy adventure series, Sherlock, and the BBC TV biopics of Hattie Jacques, Hattie, and Shirley Bassey, Shirley. She has also appeared in two Doctor Who audioplays, playing Florence Nightingale and a Space Pirate. In 2012 she will appear in the Hollywood movie Red Lights, starring Robert de Niro and Signourey Weaver. Jeany’s other passions are cycling, cake baking, Dickens, illustration, and cats - but not all at once.

     

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    Edmund Newell is Sub-Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Previously he was Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral and founding Director of St Paul’s Institute, the cathedral’s forum for debate and adult education. Before ordination, he was a Research Fellow in Economic History at Nuffield College, Oxford. He has a keen interest in bringing together religion and the performing arts, and has worked on collaborative projects with a wide range of artists including singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman and the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. His production Seven Words for the 21st Century, developed with musician Adrian Snell, has been performed in the National Cathedral, Washington DC, and featured on BBC Radio 4’s Something Understood. His story in words and music of the anti-slave trade campaigner John Newton, How Sweet the Sound!, performed with singer Christine Collister, was broadcast on Premier Radio. He was executive producer of Adrian Snell’s The Cry: A Requiem for the Lost Child, which received its première in St Paul’s Cathedral in 2008 on behalf of Save the Children.
  • Nick Bicât has written over 150 scores and soundtracks for film, television and theatre. Twice nominated for a BAFTA, his film and television credits include A Christmas Carol, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Wetherby, the American TV mini-series Lace, French and Saunders’ Let Them Eat Cake, and David Jason’s Mr Micawber. As well as composing for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Royal Ballet, he has written eleven operas and musicals, including The Knife, with Sir David Hare, nominated for best musical score at the New York Drama Awards. Other collaborators include Edward Bond, Howard Brenton and Ted Hughes. His orchestral work Under the Eye of Heaven has been performed at the Barbican and London Arena and recorded by the London Chamber Orchestra (Virgin Classics). Other concert performances include When Will There Be Peace?, an internationally televised open air concert for the Red Cross in Geneva, and Channel Dash Heroes, commissioned and conducted by Beatles’ producer Sir George Martin. Who Will Love Me Now?, sung by P.J. Harvey, was BBC Radio 1 top film song for 1998. His choral work Requiem – Songs in Memory, with Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort, is due for release shortly.
  • Philip Ridley is the only person to have won both the Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright awards. As well as writing the screenplay for The Krays (winner of the Evening Standard Best Film of the Year Award) he has written three books for adults, seven stage plays and numerous books for children, including Scribbleboy (short-listed for the Carnegie Medal), Kasper in the Glitter (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Mighty Fizz Chilla (short-listed for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), and the bestseller Krindlekrax (winner of both the Smarties Prize and WH Smith’s Mind-Boggling Books Award). He has also directed three films from his own screenplays: The Reflecting Skin, winner of eleven international awards (including the George Sadoul Prize), The Passion of Darkly Noon (for which he was voted Best Director at the Porto Film Festival) and, most recently, Heartless, starring Jim Sturgess and Timothy Spall, was released in 2010, with songs jointly written with Nick Bicât. His first opera libretto, Tarantula In Petrol Blue, was premiered at Aldeburgh in 2009.
  • The musicians for Grimm Tales are: Mary Leay (vocals), Nick Bicât (guitars, piano, keyboards, drum programming and backing vocals), Peter Knight of Steeleye Span (violin), and Maartin Allcock, formerly of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull (bass).
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