The Ugly Stepsister (2025)

Now I don’t suppose you’d have kicked “Prince Julian” (Isac Calmroth) out of bed for eating herring, but right from the start this apple of everyone’s eye looks distinctly dull! I’m not sure that the besotted “Elvira” (Lea Myren) realised that when she embarked on quite a tortuous make-over to turn her chubby and buck-toothed body into something that might turn the head of this royal highness, but needs must when the debt collectors are circling. This is probably the most grotesque take on the “Cinderella” story you are ever like to see, as it pretty graphically shows the life of this young girl, her stepsister, her mother and her downright cruel Svengali who thinks nothing of stitching her eyelids on or rearranging her teeth - without, of course, any anaesthetic. Where this also drifts away from the more traditional approach is the venality of the whole thing. “Elvira” is certainly a victim of greed, but it’s more a sort of uneducated and vulgar kind from her guardian rather than anything more spiteful or hateful. Moot point? Well, not really as in the end it is actually quite difficult to actually loathe this family desperate to climb the silky pole. I almost felt sorry for all of them. It’s gory, there’s a fair smattering of sex and our princeling can even turn his hand to poetry - though not the stuff that Yeats might have to worry about. The production has been eerily and effectively crafted with plenty of detail in the settings and costumes, and the overall message of style over substance and social and sexual conformity is writ large throughout. It turns out that there are more ways than one to get your foot in that slipper, and not all of this will be for the squeamish. I enjoyed this dark, occasionally comedic and poignant look at just what we’ll do to for love, lust and lucre.