THE Bristol-based theatre company Roustabout Theatre is touring an imaginative new show for children, Little Red Riding Could, a playful and mischievous retelling of the original fairytale, which is coming to Taunton’s Brewhouse arts centre on Saturday 19th October, Chew Valley Arts Centre on Sunday 20th, and other venues, ending at Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 2nd November.

Written and directed by Roustabout’s artistic director Toby Hulse, with original songs and music by Robin Hemmings, Little Red Riding Could dares audiences to step off the path and write their own story – what would you do if you could?

Nothing’s quite what you’d expect in the deep, dark woods. Little Red Riding Hood is no longer little, she no longer wears a hood and she wants to be called by her real name. She’s questioning everything. And so are Mother, the Woodcutter and even the Wolf!

Toby Hulse says the initial idea for the show was developed with two Year One classes in Barnsley and Stockton-on-Tees: “The five and six year olds we worked with had so many clearly articulated opinions and questions, and what had started as a play about gender roles very quickly became something far further reaching.”

The play developed into “an exploration of how we all respond to the expectations put upon us, as well as encouraging us to be wildly imaginative in the way we told the story.”

Little Red Riding Could is performed by actor-musicians Robin Hemmings, Rebecca Maule and Shaelee Rooke.

Other dates on the tour are 26th October at Front Room, Weston-Super-Mare, 27th at The Theatre Shop, Clevedon, and 1st November at Portsmouth Guildhall Studio.