Princess TherapyEven if you’ve only seen the Disney adaptations, we are all familiar with the stories of Snow White, The Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. The Disney films, although considerably more charming and child-friendly than the original Grimm brothers’ tales, all pretty much go in the direction of boy meets girl, a slight complication gets resolved and they live happily ever after. Princess Therapy imagines the fairytales after happily ever after, when chivalry and romantic ideals are dead, and the restrictive, unrealistic feminine archetypes presented in these fairytales are long gone.

Belle (Alexandra Bergeron), Snow White (Maud Madlyn) and Cinderella (Charley Willow) have become a little crazy since their marriages, and now all sit in a shared prison cell awaiting their verdicts. A world away from Disney, Snow White is now a bitter, cruel bully with a worrying drink habit, Cinderella a nervous, child-like victim and Belle an excitable but timid inmate. From the onset, it seems that they only share one thing in common: they desperately miss their princes. Other than that, Belle and Cindy try desperately to calm Snow White’s temper, and keep their own psychological torments suppressed. As these relationships develop, we see how companionship and dependency comes in many forms.

This production leaves no room for actor error: the set is simply comprised of three foldaway chairs, and the princesses dress in simple black outfits. As a result, there is immense pressure on the princesses to ensure snappy, comic exchanges and a fast tempo. Director Charlotte Ive meets this challenge with small clever touches which reveal the dynamic possibilities of a blank canvas; the princesses reveal their intimate thoughts through drawings they make to show the audience. Frustratingly, I couldn’t help but feel that a little more attention to ensuring fluid transitions between scenes would help the dark humour of Princess Therapy to become sharper and snappier.

However, the humour is by no means the most enjoyable element of this production. When we finally get to the nitty gritty details of why the princesses have landed themselves in prison, we see that a careful consideration of contemporary femininity and social ideals has gone into this production. Without giving anything away, Bergeron and Madlyn (also the writers of this production) have ingeniously transformed fairy tale heroines into contemporary women, with lots of psychological depth and complications. As they the three take it in turns to have their sessions with their therapist, “stinky shrinky”, their monologues absorb you into the creative imagination behind this production, seeing how ‘happily ever after’ itself could become a prison sentence.

By bringing these well–known stories into the twenty-first century, and envisioning them as relevant narratives which explore domestic violence, maternal anguish and 50 Shades Of Grey in a jam-packed 50 minute production, Slice of Gut theatre has created a clever and greatly enjoyable production.

Princess Therapy is playing at the Etcetera Theatre until 18 January. For more information and tickets, see the Etcetera Theatre website.