Mary Zimmerman Courtesy Goodman Theatre

The Secret in the Wings was inspired by several fairy tales, many of them little known today. The structure is as follows: except for the central story each tale is told in two parts; the first half of each story is interrupted by the first half of the next story and so on until we reach the central story, which is represented without interruption. After that, the second half of each story unfolds in the reverse of the original order. The play “fans in” to the central story, and then “fans out” again.

The framing story of the play is an updated version of Perrault’s familiar classic “Beauty and the Beast.” In it, a merchant steals a rose from a monster and for his crime his young daughter is compelled to go live with the beast. Each night the beast asks his captive if she will marry him; each night she denies him. Yet every night she dreams of a prince who tells her, “Do not trust your eyes.” At the end of a year the beast wins her love despite his terrifying appearance and at the moment she kisses him, he is transformed into the prince of her dreams. It is this story which most movingly illustrates what G.K. Chesterton wrote of fairy tales: their profound lesson is “you must love a thing before it is loveable.” - Mary Zimmerman