Dysney Disfunction
From the publicity posters you could be forgiven for thinking that this new work from Hack Theatre's Michelle Sewell is in the same vein as Border Control, the successful post modern love story that hinged on the outcome of a marriage visa application in order for two young lovers to live happily ever after in the UK. For Dysney Disfunction, a ball-gowned Sewell sports flowers in her hair and clasps a rose between European and Australian passports. The Spooner-like juxtaposition of syllables in the title already suggests that this is a different tale indeed, and could be referencing an entire Brexit-era generation.
Admittedly, when we meet Alice (played by Sewell) our empathy for her is not immediate. Her UK visitor visa has expired, and she is waiting on a platform on the Piccadilly line, all her possessions packed into suitcases, and five minutes away from the train that will carry her to Heathrow for an enforced return flight home to Australia. She has been in an on-off relationship with a partner referred to only as Prince Charming and, even at this eleventh hour, still remains convinced that he will have a change of heart and sweep her off her feet with a last-minute proposal of marriage, delivering the fairytale ending that she had always imagined when watching Disney movies as a child.
During a mysterious and dysfunctional suspension of normal time passage, Alice looks back at her childhood, adolescence and failed relationships, and contrasts them against those fantastical and fictional characters from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White ( all based, incidentally, on much darker tales by the Brothers Grimm) that moulded her formative dreams of salvation and happiness. Meanwhile, interruptions from snippets of chaotically edited video footage appear to stop, start and rewind of their own free will, as if to suggest an alternate dysfunctional reality. And throughout all of this, Prince Charming is conspicuous by his absence.
Only in the closing seconds of Alice's tale, just as the train is about to arrive, does a development alter our entire perspective of events. It is a revelatory moment that hushes the entire room, and is given powerful reinforcement when Michelle Sewell later returns to the stage to address the audience directly.
This is a triumphant piece of drama that delivers its final blow with sucker punch precision. With expert direction from David Gilbert, Michelle Sewell finds the courage to become performer whilst bringing her own writing to life with devastating effect. Bravo.
9/10
