The Brothers Grimm were famous for their often dark, usually violent and sometimes bigoted fairy tales, collected from the folklore of the German people. The Sacred Fools in L.A. are taking a look at some of their less popular tales and staging new adaptations of them Jan. 30-Feb. 21 as a part of the company's Dark Night series.

Among the Grimm tales ripe for the updating: a cat and mouse who fall in love but find living together a bit difficult; a young doctor whose romance with a troubled princess is impeded by his godfather, Death Himself; a little boy who protects his grandfather from his parents - the grandfather's own children; a little girl so irritating God wants her dead. Several stories involve toads.

Grimm! is a collaborative effort and has required the work of a whole gang of Fools. Adapting the Grimm stories are George Larkin (Dead Lawyers), Joe Jordan, Haynes Brooke, Michael Farkash, Ruth Silveira, Brenda Varda, Erik Atwell, Scott Stein, Joe Seely, Dean Cameron and Joshua. Their efforts have then been handed over to a team of directors, including Alexander Yannis Stephano, Shirley Anderson, Ben Davis, Sam Toffler, Denise Barnard, Mark T.J. Lifrieri, Aaron Francis, Padraic Duffy, Paul Plunkett, Cameron and Jessica Schroeder.

Their cast features Mikhail Blokh, Kirstin Burbank, Tara-Beth Conolly, Erynn Dalton, Zach Eisenberg, Laura Esposito, Bil Garrity, Richard Gustafson, Jihad Harik, Crystal Keith, Corey Klemow, Marius Mazmanian, Bruno Oliver, John Rosenfeld, Atim Udoffia, John Douglas Williams and John Wuchte.

Tickets are $15. For reservations, call (310) 281-8337. Sacred Fools Theatre is located at 660 N. Heliotrope Drive. The Sacred Fools are on the web at http://www.sacredfools.org. — By Christine Ehren