fairies

“I got a lot of resistance to that in the early days. But gradually the business has come around… This is closer to a fantasy novel than almost anything else because I don’t explain The Bad Weather Friend. He exists as much as fairies do.”

The studio is presenting just the second act this year — which involves gnomes, a mystical unicorn, dancing chanterelle mushrooms, darting salmon, fairies, pixies, and The Lady Rhododendron with her court of banana slugs — and plans to mount the full production in 2024.

A small, beloved footbridge in the county of Norfolk has been dismantled twice only to be replaced by “local fairies,” according to village lore, in a long-running dispute between a coastal English village and the National Trust, a conservation charity.

The Ryukyuan Pygmy Squid, Idiosepius kijimuna, is named after the short, red-haired forest fairies that are said to live in the banyan trees of Okinawa.

Later, the musicians shook wide flat ocean drums and rain sticks over the heads of attendees, tinkled wooden beads and rang gentle chimes that called to mind childhood memories, fairies and the way light sparkles on the ocean surface.