Sleeping Beauty @ Institut Français d'Ecosse

This is not the typical fairly-tale of the Princess Aurora that slumbers in the tallest room of the tallest tower, waiting to be awakened by true love’s kiss. Colette Garrigan’s Sleeping Beauty has been born and raised in the outskirts of Liverpool. Happiness is replaced by poverty. The wicked witch takes the shape of her grandmother. Her grand castle is the grandest tower block on the council estate. This story is not the bog-standard Disney cut out, but a tale of a princess that has to endure the perils of poverty before she reaches her happy ending.

A visually spectacular vision of an age-old tale, Colette Garrigan never falters in energy throughout the 55 minute duration of the play. She skips, puppets and screeches at the top of her lungs without one betrayal of tiredness. Her skills as a puppeteer are endless as her fingers combined with cardboard cut-outs to produce a whole array of new characters to join her one-woman show. There may only be one actor in the theatre but, in the minds of the audience, at least 30 characters grace the stage – although some of their limbs appear grossly out of proportion.

The snippets of French that are added to the play appear rather out of place among all the drama. It might have sounded poetic when spoken, but it's simply a repetition of the English dialogue and doesn't add any other quality to the show.

Overall a refreshing take on the notion of a fairy-tale, Sleeping Beauty proves that life is not as smooth as what we might typically see on screen, and hardships are often the price to pay on the path to happiness.