(Photo Credit: Grande Prairie Live Theatre)

By Nathaniel Leigh

GPLT

Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales running at GPLT Jan 24 – Feb 2

Jan 24, 2025 | 10:32 AM

Grande Prairie Live Theatre’s next show will see some classic fairy tales re-imagined.

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales opens at GPLT tonight Friday, January 24.

Director Christa Temple says the play, adapted from the book of the same name by Jon Sciezka and Lane Smith, retells classic fairy tales in farcical and absurd ways.

“I would say the plot is the narrators trying to get through all the stories,” Temple says. “So, they are a silly take on different fairy tales. Instead of the Gingerbread man, it’s the Stinky Cheeseman, or they talk about instead of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it’s Goldilocks and the Three Elephants.

(Photo Credit: Grande Prairie Live Theatre)

Temple says the show features a large cast of actors between the ages of 9 and 18.

“Luckily, I have a great production crew, including our backstage manager, who we have also dubbed our ‘youth wrangler,’ Alyssa,” she says. “When we’ve been running scenes when there’s a lot of kids that aren’t in that scene, she would run them through with notes, or doing improv games and theatre games, or do an art project.”

She says the show is perfect for all ages.

“There is some jokes and things that are not adult themed necessarily, but more for the adults,” she says. “I imagine that most of the parents that are going to be bringing their kids are of the generation that, when this book came out in 1992 would be familiar with it.”

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales will be running at GPLT every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at GPLT January 24, to February 2, with two shows on the Saturdays.

Opening night is tonight, doors open at 7:00 p.m.