Sexton sells

If Director Tim Burton took the Grimm’s Fairy Tales and added his gothic look and sensibilities to a dance/theater piece, you’d end up with The Ten P.M. Dream—which takes the more traditional, darker vision of the Grimm Brothers instead of the sanitized children’s versions of such classics as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood.

Unfortunately, it looks like not many will see this creative, colorful interpretive piece, which is a departure from Sacramento Theatre Company’s usual theatrical offerings. Audiences have been light, probably because the production is not part of the regular season and it opened before the STC season begins. It could also be because it would probably appeal to more dance/performance aficionados.

It’s a shame to miss this enthralling operatic/narrative/movement performance that combines vivid, magic-realism sets, imaginative costuming, tantalizing music/vocals and creative choreography. These adult translations of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales utilize S&M-like costumes, as well as parts of Anne Sexton’s Transformations poems, which choreographer Della Davidson says explore “the emotional chaos of [Sexton’s] life through recurrent themes of love, fidelity, passion, sibling rivalry and parental guilt that inhabit fairy tales.”

Davidson gives us bold movements with aggressive dancers who can titillate but who can also resonate in sweet, sentimental moments and burst with joyful, life-affirming moves.