Written and performed by Alexandra Brokowski, PRINCESS FANTASY is very much a “Vibes Based Experience”. Your opinions on Brokowski’s surrealist, oftentimes metatheatrical romp will say a lot about your relationship with absurdist comedy, channeling everyone from Tim Heidecker to Vic Michaelis in a piece that feels very much of a particular moment. That moment sits somewhere between “Being on the internet too much as a kid” to “3:23 AM”, as Brokowski
rapidly skips between themes of adolescence, responsibility, growing up, and the endlessly deranged depths of a young girl’s mind. It’s the kind of theater that will immediately click into
place for anyone who had their dolls reenact an execution after they stayed up a bit too late, or watched Dark Crystal a bit too young.
With additional support from Carly Polistina as ‘Nurse’ and stellar direction from Abigail Hilditch, PRINCESS FANTASY grips the audience tight and refuses to give up. Both Brokowski and Polistina have the audience hooked from go, and unleash a seemingly never ending barrage of high energy fun that keeps the audience laughing at every absurd turn. The show is deeply messy and intimate, but it’s also never trying not to be. Each audience member will have a moment of confusion, either when a gag doesn’t land or a feeling slips past them, but
that really comes with the territory. For me I found these moments few and far between, and each one never overstays its welcome, Hilditch maintaining the entire production at a brisk pace.
Much of the overall fun derives from key moments that very much feel within the realm of pure “play”. The walls of the snug 55 seat black box theater are lined with stuffed animals, and
Brokowski regularly engages with audience members in ways that feel more like a child playing with her dolls than an actor cajoling audience interactions. At its very best, the audience is very much a part of Brokowski’s princess fantasy, sitting next to Pusheen and Ken as she lines up members of the royal court to play Red Light, Green Light or watch her brother’s bionicles get
hanged, drawn and quartered.
The Independent Artists movement 