Review: Dysney Disfunction by HACK Theatre

Alice has five minutes to convince Prince Charming to marry her and come to terms with her difficult past.

★★★
theatre review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
Published 06 Aug 2018

Alice has created a whole life for herself in London, including a long-term committed boyfriend with whom she shares Tesco shops and a bank account. Now a rejected visa application means that she has to leave all of this and go back to Sydney unless she can convince her Prince Charming to marry her in the five minutes before her Piccadilly line tube arrives. 

This is a really current and important topic to deal with as Brexit forces families and loved ones to consider the possibility that they're going to have to live away from each other. But there are also another two or three ideas that have been squashed into Dysney Disfunction, and one hour is not enough time to do any of them justice.

There are video scenes of a therapy session that start popping up halfway through, talk of how Disney taught Alice about relationships when her parents' failed to, and an awful underlying story line of sexual abuse. These are clearly the thoughts bubbling up as Alice contemplates having to go back to the pain of her previous life, but everything feels rushed and not particularly well thought out so these strands don't do much for the show. 

All that said, Michelle Sewell gives a stunning performance as she tackles these heavy topics and her stillness at the show's climax is utterly heartbreaking. 

 

 

 

Michelle Sewell is a Malcolm Bradbury Award winner.