07/12/2025
JACK’d…a Thief, a Murder, some S*x and a BEANSTALK!
The premise: What if we questioned everything we know about the story of Jack and the Beanstalk? This subversive reimagining, birthed from playwright Rob Corbett’s story-time reflections with his daughters, asks why we celebrate a protagonist who breaks in, steals, and commits murder. Featuring a two-storey community-knitted beanstalk and a magic harp with a penchant for imagining her audience naked, this irreverent take on the classic fairy tale challenges us to reconsider the stories we’ve been told – and also the ones we tell ourselves.
The experience: At the center of this production is Henry Oswald Peirson’s masterful performance as the narrator/shapeshifter who circumnavigates the performance space continuously, as he guides us through the show’s ultra-bawdy and tangled narrative vines. Peirson’s sly, wry presence and all-purpose role as character-of-all-trades helps to ground this show’s ambitious scope, while the remaining cast deliver strong performances in fresh takes on their various roles: Brandon Kulic (Jack) Nabeel El Khafif (the surprising Giant), Carmen Gillespie (the Giant’s frustrated wife), and Ashley Hughson (Jack’s too-often-nameless mother). The story uses the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk to explore rich thematic terrain in a laugh-filled and thoughtful way – most notably questions of how, when and why we define a story’s “hero”, who is permitted to have a name in a story and why, and what (and whether) we can learn from facing these questions. That said, this play is completely JACK’D: stuffed to bursting with an excess of big ideas, which include: an abortive reading of “Jack and the Beanstalk” as social commentary, the establishment of a larger universe in which all fairy tales co-exist, extensive gender commentary, a time travel plot, Oedipus echoes … and more.
Why see it: JACK’D offers intellectual depth, multi-level theatrical fun, and plenty of laughs. But like its namesake beanstalk, the show grows in unexpected directions: audiences who enjoy NSFW ribaldry and theatre that takes a maximalist approach will find meaningful rewards if they climb along. – SS
