The Crow, (The Princess), and The Scullery Maid is a charming piece of theatre that plays on the tropes of fairytales and deftly and knowingly weaves them into a tale with modern sensibilities set in a fantasy world.
Nitta, a young girl who is possibly a witch, wants to be a writer, and she’s written her very first story. The fact that it’s alarmingly similar to the one her mum told her last night is a mere coincidence, and should absolutely be overlooked!
Nitta’s indulgent, or possibly exasperated, older brother, knows the power of stories, and also knows that in the land where these characters live, stories come alive from the written word, and take over the lives of those mentioned within them. 
It’s here where the meta-commentary really kicks up a notch, as we’re invited to enjoy a brief ‘TED talk’, complete with a ‘PowerPoint’ presentation. This helps to establish the boundaries of this particular story world and also works as a convenient cover for some costume changes occurring backstage.
This is a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and so several of the actors are multi-rolling, and they do a great job in conveying their different roles with aplomb.
What we have here is a story about a Prince who is magically transformed into a Crow because he isn’t handsome enough to be turned into a Toad. He can transform back into a Prince if the correct Princess kisses him.
The Princess isn’t interested in romance, preferring to hide in the library and read books – an understandable wish. She also wants it to be known that just because her, and the other 100 Princesses who live in the same castle all look the same, doesn’t mean they are the same. It’s a nice little piece of commentary on not judging someone based on what they look like.
The Scullery Maid is in desperate need of some Employment Legislation and is supplementing her provided diet of watery gruel with oddly shaped watermelons thrown away into the river by local traders. We promise that it all makes more sense when you watch it.
Because it’s been established that Nitta can’t interfere to correct her story once it starts going wrong, we have to instead rely on a local Enchanter, which is basically a Wizard with delusions of grandeur.
Here, the spirit of Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python is very definitely being channelled, with a scene-stealing performance which becomes increasingly absurd as the Scullery Maid is herself transformed into a Princess to infiltrate a ball in an attempt to bring the narrative back on course.
She doesn’t quite succeed, but the attempt is memorable and demonstrates the overall comedy of the piece.
We saw the first performance of this production, and it’s fair to say that The Space at Surgeons’ Hall had been having a shocker of an Official First Day as an earlier power cut had led to multiple show cancellations, whilst others, including this performance, were running behind schedule.
Given those problems and the constraints of the performance space, the company, Paris-based Spin Cycle Theater, coped admirably. There are a couple of moments where we think the script could benefit from some tightening up, but we’d also not be surprised if this was first show nerves in evidence.
A few small technical issues should likewise be overcome as the Fringe month proceeds and everyone, including technical staff, becomes more familiar with the show’s requirements.
Marked in the programme as being suitable for ages 8+, we think this feels about right – as an American production company there’s no bad language, although some of the tropes deconstructed may be a touch too adult for the youngest audience members. But much like Disney, while most of it is for kids, some of it is for adults, who will appreciate the more knowing moments of social commentary.
Overall, this is a fun interpretation of fairy tale clichés and of the tribulations of being a writer in the modern day.
The Crow, (The Princess), and The Scullery Maid continues at The Space at Surgeons’ Hall as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until August 24th (not 11th), at 18:55.
