Effed Up Fairy Tales, fuck yes

If you don’t think that suicide, armed robbery, drug addiction and town demolishing tragedies are funny, then you are truly missing out. Dad’s Garage has taken the fairy tales that everyone grew up with, removed the cookie cutter happy endings and puppy cuteness perfection, and made them pretty effed up.

Written by Kevin Gillese and Arlen Konopaki, and directed by Megan Leahy, Effed Up Fairy Tales brought me back to my Stinky Cheese Man days as a child in a way where what I was viewing felt forbidden, but oh so right. The writing was relevant, hilarious and filled with current references to bring these age-old tales to the modern day with an adult spin.

The cast of four, Jon Carr, Taylor M. Dooley, Ronnie Johnson-Lopez and Jan LeFrancois-Gijzen, played multiple roles, with different accents, and switched it up with a mere twirl around stage and maybe a hat. Jack and the bean stalk made an appearance but the magical beans were more like ecstasy with a slice of acid. Little red riding hood liked to slut it up and the three pigs were a bunch of misfit brothers with eccentric personalities and houses made out of a few questionable materials.

I have seen improve shows and scripted sketches in comedy thriving cities from New York, to Toronto, to Los Angeles, but have never seen such a comfortableness with quick paced material. A bevy of roles were doled out to a very limited amount of actors, and each climbed, jumped, rolled and ran to their proper mark, said their lines with timing and ease, and still had the wherewithal to adlib to audience cell phone interruptions.

If you are familiar with Dad’s Garage and doubt scripted comedy to hold up to its impromptu counterpart, go see this show. If you are new to what Dad’s Garage is and does and can’t even contemplate what’s happening over there in Inman Park, go see this show. Effed Up Fairy Tales is playing till March 9 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m., visit dadsgarage.com for tickets.