There is the fairytale you know and love. But what isn’t known, what no book has ever recorded, is why exactly the princess was out in the middle of a storm, in the middle of the night, at the end of an adventure. This story, is that story.
In a clever reimagining of this much-loved fairytale, audiences will meet Isabella, a princess whose life is grand and loud, but who notices the small things, and longs to be somewhere else. This stunning production featuring live classical music performed by Australian Chamber Orchestra musicians will tell the story of a princess who dreams of escape… and how she ended up on a prince’s doorstep in the rain.
The Princess, The Pea (and the Brave Escapee) is written by the incredible South Australian playwright, Finegan Kruckemeyer. Finegan has had 101 commissioned plays performed on six continents and translated into eight languages. His plays have had seasons in: 200 international festivals; all Australian states/territories; eight US national tours; five UK national tours; and at the Sydney OperaHouse, Scotland’s Imaginate Festival, New York’s Lincoln Centre for the Arts, DC’s Kennedy Center for the Arts, Ireland’s Abbey and Shanghai’s Malan Flower Theatre.
Finegan spoke to Glam Adelaide about The Princess the Pea (and the Brave Escapee), how it was developed and where he draws his inspiration from.
“For me, I think the fact that it is a conversation, that it’s not just a show. Throwing words out into the void and not knowing where they might land. It’s having a real sense of the audience through the whole process. So writing a thing, caring about the story, caring about the characters that are being invented and what the artificial made-up thing is and making that seem as real as possible, but then knowing that there’s tangible real people sitting at the other end who will receive it and who will kind of add to the magic themselves and build the story in their own heads. After all these years of writing, I’m really coming to appreciate the sense of conversation that is a work of art.”
The Princess the Pea (and the Brave Escapee) was created in collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
“It all started with a conversation with Tara, who is one of the producers at the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney. She wanted to adapt a work for young audiences, one which had enough recognition that audiences would feel kind of an invitation in – that the audience have a sense of what they were about to encounter, but the story also had enough space and enough mystery around it. So what really got me when sitting back down to the original story, the fairy tale of The Princess and the Pea, was this sense of a very open beginning, like the prequel kind of wasn’t there. In the story, the titular princess turns up at the doorstep – she has been in the storm and she is invited in and everything then follows that. But that sense of who she was before and where she came from felt like it was there for exploring. So Tara and I and Tim the director and Bryony the amazing composer, we went on this journey of deducing who this person might be.”
We asked Finegan if he wrote the script in isolation, or if it was a collaborative process with the rest of the creative team.
“This one was particularly rich in terms of people around the table and having discussions. I did write a first draft in isolation, as I tend to do, and then generally I come in for a development week which is all the creatives around the table together with a performer. I get to hear the words for the first time by someone else and that is always incredible, to have someone else interpret your words. Lots of us hadn’t worked together before we were in the room, but this process was a lot of fun. Hearing the score as well wrap around the words and make them bigger was an incredible experience.”
Having written so many works for young performers, Finegan shared the importance of festivals like DreamBIG in opening doors to the arts for younger audiences.
“I think it’s just so, so important. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is to have art in your life, particularly at that formative age. There’s so many intangibles in terms of what it offers, but also just those real practical things about giving you the tools by which to explain the world back to yourself and your role within the world. Who you are, who you’re becoming, who the people around you are and the roles you play for them, what the world is that we all exist in together. I think the arts, arguably more than anything else, can really help us have that conversation with ourselves and with other people.”
In The Princess the Pea (and the Brave Escapee), audiences young and old will be captivated as they join Isabella on her journey full of drama, humour, despair, and poignant moments, presented through storytelling, music, and shadow puppetry.
“It’s kind of a nice selfish thing in that often I make works in other places and have to travel to see them be performed. But it always makes me happy having work in Adelaide, and particularly in the DreamBIG Children’s Festival. It’s the festival that taught me what art could be when I was eight years old sitting in the audience. As a kid, it made me realise that it’s something I could do with my life and it’s exciting to know that my work now could have that same effect on someone.”
The Princess, The Pea (and the Brave Escapee)
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Saturday 17 May at 11.30am and 1.00pm
https://dreambig.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/the-princess-the-pea-and-the-brave-escapee
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