Youths bring ‘Shivers’ to stage

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 8:38 a.m.

With an open mind and an unusual sense of bravery, a young boy enters a haunted castle to spend three nights in the company of ghosts, gargoyles and demons, hoping to understand the concept of fear.

"The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers," a play derived from a folktale by the Brothers Grimm, is the Rainbow Company Youth Theatre's last production of the season and takes the stage today through Sunday, and Thursday through June 10 at the Charleston Heights Art Center.

"It's a lively play," Toni Molloy-Tudor, the play's director, said. "It's a nice, tidy story where children take away from it what they want and adults take away something on a deeper level ... There are clever and humorous parts."

Molloy-Tudor has directed other folk and fairy tales, such as "Cinderella," "Don't Count Your Chickens Until They Cry Wolf" and "Beauty and the Beast."

In "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers," the boy (who is nameless) has no preconceived ideas of death or fear, and wants to find out what it means to get the shivers.

Also, a reward awaits. A cowardly king promises a lifetime of riches and marriage to his daughter to any man who rids the castle of the ghosts. Others have tried to spend three nights in the castle, but to no avail.

During the boy's first night in the castle, the castle's master ghost sends his minions -- a large angry dog and three ferocious cats -- to scare the boy, but the boy triumphs over them and stays in the castle.

During the second night a ghost dressed as a bride appears with a coffin containing the body of the boy's recently deceased cousin, who comes back to life and chases the boy. Again, the ghosts have little success in their evil hauntings.

They return again on the third night, along with the master ghost who throws himself into the fray, but the inquisitive and fearless boy holds his ground.

"Because he comes to it with an open mind, fear doesn't overtake him," Molloy-Tudor said.

The play has a cast of 20 and should appeal to adults and children ages 9 and older, she said. It could be appropriate for younger children if the child is "a little more adventurous," Molloy-Tudor said. There are spirits and ghosts onstage, "but it's certainly not Dracula."

The play offers no underlying themes, she said. "That's one of the appeals of a folktale, you just take away (from it) what it means to you."