FORGET awkward ducklings turning into beautiful swans and tiny princesses sleeping in walnut shells, Rachel Rose Reid explores the darker side of fairytales in her new show, I’m Hans Christian Andersen, in Bolton on May 19.

“The idea came from when I heard on the radio that Andersen wrote The Little Mermaid on an island where he’d gone to escape the wedding of the person he loved,” she says.

“I thought, that doesn’t sound like a story that involves singing lobsters.

“That bittersweetness really fascinated me because it wasn't what I expected to hear.

"We’re a bit obsessed with fairytale endings but what do you do with a love that’s not simple?

"It seemed to me that Andersen might have a lot more to say to us than Disney would have us believe.”

Rachel, who in her owns words “grew up halfway between the folk scene and the urban scene”, mixes episodes from her own life into the show.

“I like to pull the story back to gritty everyday experience because that’s what we come from,” she says.

“It’s really nice to scrub away at the idea that storytelling is only for kids — it’s what we do every day to entertain our friends, it’s what we did before there was television.”

I’m Hans Christian Andersen, which is directed by Phill Breen, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival last year, and the Bolton performance will be the final British date before Rachel jets off to tour it around Australia.

“It’s a combination between stand-up, comedy and guided visualisation,” she says when asked how she would describe what she does.

“It’s satisfying to see the effect on people of something so simple, and hopefully they will take away a sense of the magic that happens when your imagination gets going.”

* I’m Hans Christian Andersen is at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, on Thursday, May 19. Tickets cost £8, and are available from octagonbolton.co.uk or by ringing 01204 520661.