Scary Christmas shows: too much for children - or adults?

murder, madness, mutilation of the family ... Winter plays embrace the dark side of life, if Matilda by Roald Dahl or Robin Hood of the CBC. But should we let them?

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joke was that he did. It is true that the new winter schedule of CSR, the heart of Robin Hood, said from the beginning that we were not healthy in the middle of the spotted Sun exploits. In the first few minutes, our gallant hero had been murdered by a monk with an arrow in the eye. Soon after, the soldiers threatened to two children under blubbing toes pivot of his father hanged. A realistic beheading a little gasps, but was quickly replaced by a brutal, making the mouth, which devastated the Annex to celebrate restless foam on the mouth with the blood of the victim. But when King John began to float his hand gestures pantomime prurient nature, I saw several adults around me, pursing his lips.

children, of course, have been outsourcing - and ecstasy. On what should have been. Production Gísli Örn Gardarsson deliciously visceral breaks through the clichés of our history the most hackneyed to touch their anarchic country, aerobatic and deeply touch the heart. It feels much more authentic versions of Flynn, Costner and company, and full of strange disease that characterizes the old myths in Britain.

However, some grumbling among the parents who come out at night. Was it not, well, a bit much? There is an "appropriate to the age of seven +" disclaimer on the site of the RSC, but it is presented as a family show and there were many under-sevens at the hearing. "It was the same with Toy Story 3," says one mother. "It's not in the oven. It was too scary for me, not to mention it. "

This response was staggering. Adults do not remember what it means to be a child? The success of the franchise horror stories reminds us that kids love disorder, bloody mess, but the stories are pure Blyton compared to the best of children's literature. From the moment we have a perverse cruelty of the Brothers Grimm, things get dark. Then came Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, Alan Garner ... They are the guardians of the twisted imagination of our childhood. Even JK Rowling Death Eaters take the tradition.

• And it makes sense that things are really bad due out at Christmas. In the dark days of winter do not want to wearing red Santa Claus drinking Coca-Cola or a beggar box enter Turkey - we want the witches and wolves, con artists and criminals. Creatures of Darkness

producers understand this. Therefore, long-term Mathilde, last year's hit musical RSC is now selling in the West End. It is less bloody than the new Robin Hood, but Miss Trunchbull Bertie Carvel special cocktail exudes menace and madness. And the National Winter range of flora and children took to the streets, a subversive production macabre theater company in 1927 in which children in a riot of homes infested with cockroaches in the city against the ruthless rich: he a background of Fritz Lang and Edward Gorey in his bleak and disturbing. And then there's Little Angel Theatre adaptation of magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez story a very old man with enormous wings, in which the puppets is as bad as central is beautiful.

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