Youth actors in North Jersey put the queen on trial against Rumpelstiltskin. Who won?

HAWTHORNE — It was the trial of the 19th century, and the jurors, bless their hearts, could not return a unanimous decision.

A hung verdict!

But this is a mock court where an enchanted elf is hellbent on keeping someone else’s baby, and a queen is sued for breach of contract. What matters most is not so much the outcome of the case, but the conversation that it creates.

On a recent Saturday, nine children from Bergen, Morris and Passaic counties performed a short production titled “Rumpelstiltskin vs. the Queen” in the courtroom of the municipal building on Lafayette Avenue.

The program, co-sponsored by the borough and The Towncast, a local podcasting network, was based on the 1812 fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm in which Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold in return for a girl’s firstborn child. She needs to prove that she can perform such a miraculous task to marry a king.

In the actual story, Rumpelstiltskin agrees to give up his claim to the child if the girl can guess his name.

But the children’s performance departs from that classic tale to a farcical courtroom scene where people in the audience — in this case, parents and grandparents of the young actors — serve as jurors.

Julie Miller Romeo, a borough resident, co-created the program called Fairy Tale Trials to educate children about the criminal justice system in an engaging way.

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“The entrance point is a fairy tale that they’re familiar with, but then, it takes them to a complex moral argument,” said Romeo, whose husband, Flavio Romeo, founded The Towncast during the pandemic.

Romeo, a native of Highland Park, Illinois, said she introduced the program almost four decades ago to children of greater Chicago when she was the director of public affairs for the Circuit Court of Cook County — among the largest unified courts in the U.S.

At the time, Romeo said, the chief judge’s office wanted to do something substantively positive because the Cook County court was mired in a bribery scandal where 92 officials were indicted, with most convicted. The FBI dubbed its investigation of the corruption “Operation Greylord.”

The program was first brought to schools, but Romeo said it soon became the darling of bar conventions and lawyer workshops. And after she moved to Hawthorne, she said she continued to offer it to students in this area.

There are five productions in the series of Fairy Tale Trials, including the “Rumpelstiltskin” play. Others are “Hansel and Gretel,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Sleeping Beauty.”

In the one based on “Sleeping Beauty,” a 1697 fairy tale by Charles Perrault, the title character is kept alive in a persistent vegetative state. The play is a vehicle to argue such ethical issues as the nature of consciousness and quality of life, Romeo said.

The “Rumpelstiltskin” production explores another legal quandary: surrogate motherhood.

At the end of the play, Romeo polled the audience and about half of the people said they agreed that Rumpelestiltskin should get to keep the girl’s baby because she made a promise. Many others, however, said she should not have to give up her child.

“It’s about split,” Romeo declared of the verdict. “That means they did a fantastic job.”

Romeo said the script for the production was inspired in part by the landmark Baby M custody battle of March 1987 in which a surrogate was eventually awarded visitation rights.

The actors in the local production were not born when that New Jersey case made national headlines, but the complicated issues it raised are not lost on them.

“I feel like people should keep their promises,” said Jake Bonazzi, 11, of Glen Rock, who played the part of Rumpelstiltskin. “But it’s a little inhumane for someone to take a baby away — then, again, this is a fairy tale with a magic elf.”

For more information about Fairy Tale Trials programs, call Romeo at 973-493-6353, or visit fairytaletrials.com.

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Youth actors in North Jersey put courtroom spin on Brothers Grimm tale