When I arrived at the Barbican, I was horribly sleep-deprived, half-starved, slightly dehydrated, just a teeny bit under the weather, and consequently predisposed to be intellectually feeble, and emotionally malleable. I was slightly disturbed by the music in the waiting room, hopelessly disorientated by the backstage labyrinth, bewildered by the darkness, and in a state of utter confusion by the time the first balloon was pressed into my hands by a distinctly flighty looking fairy.
I’ve never trusted fairies. They’re always trying to steal babies and trap poor mortals in eternal enchantments, that sort of thing. And they giggle too much. This one can’t even speak, the ludicrous fluttering thing, or so it wants me to think. At least you know where you are with trolls and goblins.
Now where was I? Ah yes. Confusion.
Am I here to steal the eggs back from the evil witch? No, probably not. Not tall enough to reach them. Oh, an eggyballoony thing. Bit light to contain all the nutrients for an embryonic firebird? But then, fire does feed on air. Ho hum. Oh, the fairy wants me to put the egg back in the nest. Why? Won’t the witch just take it back? Maybe it’s some sort of fairy egg, a fae cuckoo? Can’t trust fairies. What are you looking at, witch? Don’t you writhe your head at me! Oooh, interesting lighting, dappling the translucent forest. What’s that sound behind me? Woah, that raggedy creature’s quicker than I thought, and it’s not limited to the forest. The paths are not safe after all. Oh well. Two more eggs to go? Oh yes. That shifty fairy’s back again with another egg. How many of them do they have? Where did they steal them from? Right, here we go again. Aha! So I’m not the only fool being used by the fairies. The newcomer seems to have the witch’s attention. Right. And a step, hop, slide, slither, stretch, and there we go. Oh, interesting jingle. Something’s happy. The witch clearly isn’t. Yikes! Time to scarper. Phew.
Oh, and what have we here? A viewing platform? Gosh, she’s a cautious one. Nonono, not that way… oh, that’s right, gogogo… yeah, watching from the viewing platform was hilarious, and quite revealing, as regards the characters of the participants. I wonder how it went later on, with more people? The one really jarring moment was when two people actually spoke to each other. It didn’t seem right, somehow."