The Playful Infinities of Theatre Gigante’s ‘Cosmic Fairy Tales’

by Russ Bickerstaff
March 3, 2021

Theatre Gigante offers a series of brief stories brought online by performers from various corners of the country and the rest of the world. A Cosmic Fairy Tale a Day Keeps the Doctor Away is an often dazzling, little offering of deliciously short fantasy stories written by Slovene author Rok Vilčnik. A single payment of $31 allows access to 31 tales that can be viewed in 31 days (or less.) The stories are almost all under 10 minutes in length, but they have a habit of echoing into any evening with their thematic immensity.

There’s a dizzying array of different moods in the 31, little videos. Playful infinities dart in and out of various narratives that also occasionally dive into overwhelmingly deep moments of philosophy and metaphysics. Theatre Gigante’s Mark Anderson delivers a whimsical tale of beginnings and endings portrayed by the cartoon silhouette that’s been inhabiting the group’s logo for years now. Isabelle Kralj delivers a similarly surreally silly, little fantasy story in which a stampede of question marks rushes off in search of its fate. There’s also some irresistibly minimalist beauty to be found in the videos.

Megan Kaminsky tells the story of a being forced into stasis who has become so bored that he’s decided to create the universe. Rose Grizzell tells the tale of an often overlooked type of relationship while punctuating her words on harp in “Lara.” Posy Knight is crushingly hypnotic in a tale of sacrifice at the end of the universe. Voices from more distant places include the deep Italian accent of Ravenna-based Alessandro Renda, who tells to story of an actor and the deeply charming brogue of Belfast-based singer and actress Jordan Mackin relating the transit of a single soul of a chimneysweep. There are only 31 stories in the set, but there’s a pleasantly endless energy about them.