The Midnight Train Crossing

We lucked out with parking, just as we were turning the corner around the theatre a car left, so yay free parking.
Intermission was disappointing - first they only had the boring sugar cookies, and then they ran out.
It was kind of funny to see the line for refreshments just vanish though.

Okay, now that that's out of my system, on with the show.
It was one of the better ones that I've seen - I think it was definitely the best one this season.

The set was cool, there were branches and trees all over the place, with two high platforms on either side of the stage, and a turntable in the middle.
On one of the platforms was an ominous looking spinning wheel.
Over the center part of the rear of the stage was a model of a castle with three towers.

I enjoyed the show very much. I like the story of sleeping beauty, but besides that, the show was so funny! More than I expected it to be.

The King - King Peredur (also known as just Perry)- was played by Bo Johnson, who is in everything. He came out in his royal robes, with long brown hair and a crown to do the opening spiel. He decreed that there would be no eating or drinking in the theatre, and that there would be no photography or recording of the show, and that all pagers, cellphones and watches should be turned off.
At which point, there was the ringing sound of a cell phone being turned off.
It was absolutely perfect timing - I don't think they could have planned it better.

Continuing with the adult cast, there was Queen Guinevere (Also known as Gwen) played by Jacque Troy, the evil witch Modron, played evilly by Molly Glynn, the good witch, Branwen, played by Diane Robinson and Gryff played by Benjamin Reigel, who was just awesome.
The kids are double cast, so we saw the Briar Cast.

So the story began with Modron - dressed in black, and Branwen - dressed in white, starting to tell the story in unison. Both of the witches spoke many of their lines in somewhat sing-songy rhyme, although they weren't always consistent with that.
This explained the two platforms - the one on the left was Modron's home and the one on the right belonged to Branwen.

So once upon a time, there was a king and queen who were very sad because they couldn't have children. So when the good witch Branwen acquired a baby girl, she decided it would be a good idea to give the girl to the king and queen so everyone would be happy.
So she set the baby up all nicely in a basket under a rose bush for the king and queen to find....

Perry and Gwen weren't that good at finding things, or each other for that matter.
Here was their conversation as they wandered through the forest:
"Gwen! Gwen where are you?"
"Here!"
"Where's here?"
"By the oak tree!"
"Which one?"
"The wooden one!"

Branwen had a magic mirror, which sort of looked like a dream catcher on a stand. Gryff would keep watch through it and give amusing commentary.
The King and Queen were not cooperating in finding the baby - for awhile they couldn't even find each other.
"Well, the king and the queen have finally found each oth- Nope, never mind," reported Gryff.

While Perry and Gwen wandered the forest, someone else found the child - Modron. She starts to take the little girl home, but Branwen stops her, and Modron leaves in a huff.

Finally the queen finds the baby. The king is hesitant at first to take home a random child found in the woods, but as soon as his wife places the baby in his arms, he changes his mind.

As I said before, Branwen (And Gryff) watch the world through a magic mirror, and Modron had a little spinning thing (I'm not sure what it was supposed to be) that either let her see what was going on, or let her hear.
At any rate, the Queen says that she does not want Modron invited to the christening, and Modron and Branwen both hear. Then they all spend a good two minutes taking turns saying "Not invited!" in various tones of voice.
I thought that was sort of overkill.

Every child is allowed to have thirteen magical gifts given to her, and Branwen is up for the task. Gwen and Perry run through a list of things, she should be beautiful and kind and clever, and a good singer and dancer, and good at games, and well behaved, and punctual and other such things.
Modron shows up at just the right moment to give the thirteenth gift - the spinning wheel curse.
It's the standard thing, Branwen turns it to be a deep sleep for a hundred years. If she is not woken by her love's kiss before then, then she will die.

Perry decides to burn all the spinning wheels. So, that means that none of the people in his kingdom can make cloth, so they have to have it shipped in from another kingdom. The other king thinks that Perry has lost his mind.

For an extra measure of safety, Branwen sends Gryff to look after the princess.
Gryff is hesitant. He's Branwen's servant, true, but he doesn't really like it. Branwen's spells have a tendency to go wrong. Of course, he has a reason to be upset because he was on the receiving end of a defective spell.
Gryff is half man, half dragon. He wants to be a real dragon that can spit fire and fly around the world in four and a half minutes.
It was amusing because the accent that the actor chose reminded me a lot of the dragon from Jane and the Dragon...

Anyway, he had a really interesting costume, and most people were afraid of him because of his strange appearance. But Branwen makes it so that only Briar Rose can see him.

This leads to some fun scenes when Briar Rose is a bit older (Played by Lydia Hartlaub)and she and Gryff have a picnic in her garden.
When her parents come to join them, they can't see Gryff. Scenes where one character can't be seen by the others is always fun.

There must be a prince of course. Young Prince Owen (Henry Ballesteros), son of Owen, son of Owen, son of Owen, son of Owen, son of Owen, son of Owen (also known as Prince Owen son of Owen etcetera) arrives on Branwen's advice, and despite Modron's meddling.
Modron disguises herself as an old woman who sounds like a pirate with a really bad cold at several points in the show.

Owen is, according to his father, utterly useless at everything. But he can see Gryff... and is terrified of him at first. But Briar Rose and Gryff try to find something that Owen is good at... they try dancing, and riddles, and fencing, but he's not good at any of those.
The only thing that he is good at is being Briar Rose's friend.

Time passes and the two children grow up to be good friends. Gryff is bummed because Briar Rose doesn't need him. I wanted to hug him.

Older Briar Rose was played by Olivia Stemwell, and older Owen was played by Nick Ballesteros - who was cute. And played Owen as a totally adorkable prince. I wanted to pick him up and hug him.

There was a cute scene where Briar Rose is flirting with him, but he's totally oblivious as he sits and talks about the bugs he found so that they could go fishing in the moat.

So usual sleeping beauty story line, Modron tricks Briar Rose into pricking her finger, Branwen puts everyone to sleep for one hundred years, Modron surrounds the palace with thorns.

So useless Owen and Gryff embark on their quest to reach the castle in time.

Gryff has the idea of summoning the fairies, the Tylweth Teg, by creating a fairy ring. He and Owen wait for them to arrive.

I thought the Tylweth Teg were another highlight to the show - there were six of them. They were fantastically played by Jenna Wolfsohn, Jacalyn Nolan, Lashanda Slade, Maddie Mandel, Elsa Bruno and Emmaline Mandel. They all wore variants on the same outfit, in shades of red and orange, with pointy ears and tangled reddish brown curly hair.
They didn't like people very much, or half-dragons. They smelled funny. However, they thought that Owen could be acceptable, and wanted to keep him as a pet (I think). It was funny, because they all wanted him to kiss them.
So Owen made a deal. They would dance, and if he could out dance the Tylweth Teg, they would help him find the castle. If not, he would stay with them for always.

So they danced, and Owen was really getting into it. He turned out to be a pretty good dancer.

But after he won, they said three things. 1) They didn't know where the castle was, 2) the spider king did know and 3) he was dancing for fifty years.

So off Owen and Gryff go to see the spider king, who was played by Bo Johnson (Pulling double duty)
I don't know if he was meant to be scary, but he sort of looked silly.
He was black and fuzzy with the required four additional limbs, but all four of his limbs had, like, flouresent yellow stripes on them. He had a rope going from his back to the rear of the stage that I'm sure was supposed to be spider thread, and it let him lean over into rather precarious positions.
And he over-enunciated all of his words, so that just sounded odd.
So the deal with the spider king was that Owen would answer three riddles and the spider king would show the way to the castle. If Owen couldn't, then the spider would eat him and Gryff.

The Spider King used his webbing to trap the two, and that I thought was well acted out. I give Owen's actor brownie points for looking truly terrified.
The Spider King points out that, in fact, they were right by the castle, but that they spent nearly fifty years in his cave. Time certainly flies, doesn't it?

Branwen arrived just in time to deal with the trouble of Owen now being one hundred and sixteen, and then he went off to face Modred.

The fight scene between the two of them was well choreographed, and the ending was a great bit of stage magic. It looked like Owen's sword went right through her.

Then his final task... as Branwen and Gryff watched, Owen had to overcome his last obstacle... his dislike of kissing.
It was cute, because now, ninety-nine years, fifty-one weeks, six days, twenty three hours and fifty nine minutes after Briar Rose fell asleep, Owen has to kiss her. But will he do it in time?
Branwen and Gryff got the audience to count down the seconds, starting at fifteen.

And then, on the "one" Branwen and Gryff fell silent and Owen kissed her.

So everyone woke up and they lived happily ever after.

Even Gryff, who got the potion that turned him into a real dragon. He spread his wings, stretched a few times and then leapt into the air to make his first four and a half minute flight around the world.

So off he flew.... And..... CRASH!

One of the final lines of the play was "I meant to do that!"