Fairytale Lives’ could use less magic, more realism

• Photo by Greg Mooney
• THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH: Sarah Elizabeth Wallis and Judy Leavell

The Alliance Theatre opened its current season with Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim’s ingenious riff on classic bedtime stories. You should definitely put the kids to bed before approaching the Alliance’s world premiere of The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls. Meg Miroshnik, winner of this year’s Kendeda Graduate Playwriting competition, takes a mashup approach to both old-school instructional folktales and today’s young Russian women who use sex as a commodity.

For instance, the play opens with Masha (Diany Rodriguez), a profane hottie in a red hoodie, who talks about a trip into the woods to pick mushrooms and berries, which she describes as erotically as possible. Afterward, she finds a remote cottage where she makes herself at home, taking off her shirt to reveal a red lacy bra, before the arrival of its owner, a big, bad bear who wants to do more than just devour her. Miroshnik takes a magic realism approach to the play, which could use a little less magic and more realism.