Paper Bag Princess playfully adapted to stage

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/12/2019 (2463 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It should be a matter of interest that the Prairie Theatre Exchange’s annual Robert Munsch-based production The Paper Bag Princess opened on the same day Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit cinemas.

The original 1977 Star Wars operated on the very premise that Munsch so gleefully satirized: princesses get saved. They aren’t supposed to do the saving.

Munsch, of course, turned that dynamic on its head by focusing on the cheeky Princess Elizabeth, who has her castle (and clothes) burned up by a dragon. Undeterred, she suits up in a paper bag to bravely rescue her designated betrothed, the smarmy Prince Ronald, from his fate as the dragon’s dinner.

Munsch’s book was first published in 1980, and it gained popularity for its gently feminist revision of sexist fairy-tale tropes. In the ensuing almost-40 years, the culture has done some catching up, to the extent that the furious, fighting main hero of the past three Star Wars movies is a young woman, Rey, played by Daisy Ridley. She joins a host of can-do, kick-ass cinema heroines of the past few years, including Lara Croft, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and just about anything with Charlize Theron. If things haven’t quite achieved a real equilibrium (witness the backlash against the Kristen Wiig-led Ghostbusters), the situation is at least improved.

Hence Alissa Watson, who adapted the book and also directs this production, acknowledges but doesn’t push hard on the book’s feminism. Instead, she and her three-person cast emphasize the goofy fun of the source material.

This is the first stand-alone adaptation of a Munsch work at PTE, instead of the usual multi-story adaptations by Debbie Patterson, and it enjoys the advantage that this is one of a handful of Munsch works that’s worthy of a stage translation.

Watson artfully embellishes the tale, which only ran 32 storybook pages, remember. Elizabeth, played by Dutchess Cayetano, remains a plucky heroine, who rejects the “princess-iples” of her upbringing that demand she work on being pretty and genial and accommodating. She has other ideas, and when the dragon (a droll Johanna Burdon) attacks, she gets a chance to demonstrate her own values of smarts and courage in the face of adversity. Indeed, when the dragon kidnaps the Ronald (Chris Sousa), Elizabeth engages him in a battle of wits, proving you can sometimes accomplish more with brains than you can with a sword.

It’s a fast, fun show, which set and costume designer Linda Beech has playfully placed in front of a giant pad of lined paper, with illustrations depicting the castle (before and after fiery destruction), a forest and the dragon’s bone-strewn lair. It’s an added comic bonus that the actors can just barely reach to turn the pages of the notebook, creating a bit of suspense with every scene change.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing