Nova Scotia's hottest summer ticket is a stage show mixing drag and anime

The hottest ticket in Nova Scotia theatre isn't a tale about the ocean. It's not forged from salt fog and imbued with local colour. But it has a track record and following that few modern plays in the province, or the country, can top — and it's achieved almost all of it by word of mouth.

The Princess Show is an intergalactic romp doused in a palette of neon. It favours techno music over trad. It's also a reminder that all kinds of stories have made a home here, though it seems to be the first that's done so by mixing drag, anime and live theatre. 

Incredibly, it almost never got a second run..

"I was just nervous to put myself out there," says Aaron Collier, the show's co-creator, co-writer and star. "Although it uses a fantasy landscape to tell it, it's actually a really personal story. I draw upon my own personal struggles with depression."

The play's story arc skews classic: it follows Princess Edward as she travels across time and space to rescue her beloved, Abel T. Suckizone, from a villain. In the great tradition of heroes' journeys, she must also slay her inner demons along the way. 

Back in 2016, Collier gave the project a two-night trial run in Lethbridge, Alta., where he was living at the time. He thought that would be the first and last time the play ever saw the stage. 

"I didn't think I would ever do it again," he says, laughing. "And I didn't think that anybody would actually want to see it."

Instead, at the urging of his spouse and longtime artistic collaborator, Richie Wilcox (who also co-wrote and co-created TPS — along with theatre artist Deonie Hudson — and who acts in the play), Collier submitted it to the Halifax Fringe Festival.

When The Princess Show, already a word-of-mouth draw, played to a packed house, Andrew Chandler — now executive director of Nova Scotia's Chester Playhouse — was part of the crowd. He says he still remembers how the show made him feel. 

"I was like, 'What is this thing?'" he says. "They're lip-syncing and they're in drag and makeup, and it's like a comic book — but it's theatre. But really quickly into the show, you recognize that Princess Edward is just struggling with doubt and fear, and I certainly relate to that. So by the time the end comes and we're celebrating with her, I was on my feet cheering right along." 

It makes sense that Chandler would select the play for the Chester Playhouse this summer. (It's the theatre's first full season back since 2021, when a fire badly damaged the venue, which dates back to the 1930s). 

"I think there's something really special about the universality of the show, of the themes of the show, in these trappings that I'd never seen before," he says. "It's accessible and it's funny and it's uplifting in this universal story."

The Princess Show has also proven it has legs. After scooping up the Fringe Hit award (the top prize at the Halifax Fringe Festival), Collier took his play to Toronto, Vancouver, Fredericton and Parrsboro, N.S. (where it played at the seasonal staple Ship's Company Theatre). Along the way, in 2021, it was nominated for a Masterworks Arts Award, Nova Scotia's top prize in the arts. 

While Nova Scotia has a dedicated theatre community, a lot of original productions struggle to get staged more than once. The Princess Show is an outlier: it has continued to find new stages and audiences almost continually since 2016. 

Collier isn't sure why, but thinks it may be because it comes from a place that's real and vulnerable. 

"I think there was some kind of magic in the show," he says. "We've subsequently developed more works involving the princess and Abel … but none of them quite land like this one does. And I think there was a certain magic that was happening when I made it. I was really vulnerable and I had a new lease on life." 

He adds that, while The Princess Show may seem like an unconventional anomaly — with it's lip-syncing and live cartoon feel — in some ways, it's not. Nova Scotian theatre is full of people experimenting and pushing boundaries.

"There certainly is all sorts of fantastic work that is putting beautiful truth on stage that is weird and wacky and is joyful and fun," he says. "And it is inviting new audiences into the theatre these days. So, you know, I'm happy to be a part of a growing community of wild and wonderful theatre that's coming out of Nova Scotia."   

The Princess Show runs July 20 to 21 at the Chester Playhouse in Chester, N.S.