
Oh dear. Princess Dramas, by Austrian writer Elfiede Jelinek, is hard work from beginning to end.

The Bearskinner is an innovative take on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about how not to sell your soul to the devil.

It is difficult to know what this play is actually hoping to achieve. It depicts stereotypical, unrecognisable characters, and highly unlikely coincidences.

This is Madonna as we have never seen her before. She is recreated in a beautiful baritone, accompanied only by piano. Once removed from the pop beats, some of her music sounds remarkably nice. This is the moment for her lyrics to shine.


It takes a while to realise the full brilliance of this group. It happens progressively, through the dozens of little moments of “Did he just do that?”