Wicked Nix: the foulest of the faeries and the queen
08 May 2025 - Photos by Dahlia Katz

I'm the foulest of the faeries!

A magical forest is tended to by Mr Green and guarded by Nix. Mr Green also tends to Nix, who is nearing the end of his year of service. It is almost midsummer and a portal will open so the fairies can gather in a meadow to dance and celebrate. Nix is hoping that the Faery Queen will relieve him of his duties and allow him return with her and his many faery friends to the realm of the faeries. There is a complication. A man-people has taken up residence in an abandoned cottage deep in the forest. The queen will not be pleased, so Nix makes it his mission to drive the man-people out. There is a further complication in that his friend Rose the Wise, who lives with her mother on the edge of the forest, wants to meet the Faery Queen and see the celebration. Nix fears for her safety because, as Rose's mother warns about the faeries, "They steal what you love the most. And they laugh about it." Nix's battle with the man-people escalates while Rose connives to meet the Faery Queen. Eventually so do we.

Wicked Nix, directed by Stephen Colella, is an adaptation by Paula Wing of a best-selling book by YA author Lena Coakley. The production is aimed at a young audience from approximately eight to thirteen but the adults, myself included, in the audience were thoroughly entertained. Wicked Nix is colourful and delightful with just enough twists and turns in the plot to keep one engaged. What is curious is the subtext. The humans and the faeries have an uneasy truce. If the humans leave out food for the faeries — "when we treat the faeries right, they treat us right" — the farmers' crops are blessed. However when Nix is given a stale crust of bread and a bowl of milk with flies in it, he flings malicious rhyming curses onto the man-people. There is a not too subtle criticism of capitalism underlying Wicked Nix. Coakley also digs into classic fairy tale lore to riff on changelings, taken children, salt and iron as faery deterrents, and the queen's questionable maternal instincts. The plot is crystal clear but the villainy falls into a gray area.

Rose the Wise, Qianna MacGuilchrist, is a spunky spitfire who uses her wits to get what she wants. She is also very stubborn, disobedient, and is perfectly willing to nibble away a portion of the honeycomb meant for Nix. A role model with a rebel streak. She does have a wonderful line that should have created a sub-theme: when confronted with a dilemma, she announces, "If we play, I'll think of something." She and Nix gallop around the set and sure enough, Rose comes up with a solution. Davinder Malhi (Casey and Diana) is an athletic, expressive Nix, who is easy enough on the eyes to inspire teen idoldom. He clambers into his nest at lightning speed, and strikes ferocious poses as he leaps about. But of course there is a wounded vulnerability at his core and he wants nothing more than to be reunited with the Faery Queen and his friends. To be loved. He also cares deeply for the forest and is incensed at the man-people, James Dallas Smith, to the point where he poisons the well with "skunk spit and frog pee." Mr Green, Michael Spencer-Davis (London Assurance), is a puzzling character. Wise and seemingly powerful, he offers advice and wisdom, but mainly seems to exist to move set pieces to set up scenes. An ecological subtext may just have eluded my grasp.

Christine Horne (Infinite Life, Angels in America, Prince Hamlet, Tom at the Farm) is a somewhat brittle mother who genuinely seems to fear the faeries. However, it is a double role and she gets a spectacular entrance, worthy of a Drag Race contestant or a glammed-up Disney villain, as the Faery Queen. The queen is a curious character who easily abandons her kidnapped children despite professing her love for them. I hope I was the only one who found that combination within a single actor problematic. However I could watch Horne strut in sequins, intoning in a regal voice, for an entire play instead of just the climax of Wicked Nix. There is no question that I am overthinking what is a sweet story of familial love, self-reliance, friendship, and abject terror of faeries and wicked queens. The narrative moves quickly with the twists slyly set up and the balance between special effects and imagination is perfection: the faeries that exist as twinkle lights and electronically distorted voices are magical. Even the ones who appear to be embedded in raccoon carcasses. I only wish I had been able to take one of the children in my life, she is obsessed with sparkles and evil queens but is well under eight and has no attention span, as seeing Wicked Nix through her innocent eyes would have negated any of my skunk spit and frog pee musings on thematic inconsistency.