Bibbity Bobbity Bondi tells the story of a fairytale Princess, who, granted a wish by her Fairy Godmother, has come to Australia to see Bondi Beach. Unfortunately, Australian Border Control is unyielding, and the Princess has some questions to answer.
What follows from this quickly established premise is an imagined conversation between Princess (Amy Fortnum) and border control officer Nicole (Hannah Julii Anderson). The banter between the two is witty, well-written, and delivered at a pace.
Princess has lived her entire life in a fairy-tale kingdom and is strongly aware of all of the tropes surrounding her character. Indeed, the cute animals she is usually accompanied by are confiscated in the early minutes of the story. Princess just wants to get to the beach, but Nicole has a job to do, and, possibly somewhat predictably, a slightly chaotic private life.
As the story proceeds, we get more of an insight into the Princess’ optimism. Fortnum can belt out a long high note like a 1940s Disney Princess voice actor – it’s seriously impressive. Nicole, as you might imagine, is at first just bewildered by what is going on, and how a person can have no passport, no identification documents, and no presence on any international database. Also, Princess hails from a kingdom with a gleefully unpronounceable name. Additional kudos to Fortnum for the multiple times she has to repeat it.
Nicole carries a huge weight of concerns on her shoulders. Her girlfriend thinks that Nicole is spending too long at her job, and Nicole agrees. She also thinks she’s not spending enough time with her son, and that she’s missing being there for landmark moments of him growing up, and she’s dealing with some everyday sexism at her job. She’s a manager, and yet others at Border Control are listened to before she is, and have been given pay rises when she hasn’t.
Nicole slowly thaws, first of all buying into Princess’ concern for her animals, and then joining in on a later song. From an initial hostility and scepticism, we see that she is just a person trying to do their job, in often trying circumstances. For her part, Princess discovers that things in the Real World are very different to her fairytale kingdom. From the lengths of relationships before marriage to the need for paperwork to prove that you’ve been born, she takes these jolts to her worldview with remarkable openness.
This is a lovely show that has been well put together and has made clever use of the space of the Clover Studio at Riddles Court. Bibbity Bobbity Bondi combines humour, optimism, and a healthy dose of Australian bluntness to make the perfect recipe for a modern fairytale.
Bibbity Bobbity Bondi continues at 20:45 in the Clover Studio at Greenside Venues at Riddles Court (just off the Royal Mile), daily until August 9th.
