Review: I WANNA BE A F*CKING PRINCESS at Ground Floor Theatre

In I WANNA BE A F*CKING PRINCESS,  playwright Jenny Connell Davis invites us to a raucous Southern bridal suite where cocktails flow, secrets unravel, and fairy tales are upended with wicked glee. Produced by Ground Floor Theatre and directed by Patti Neff-Tiven, this darkly funny, emotionally rich new play follows Bella and her four bridesmaids, a circle of Southern women who confront not only their pasts but the stories they’ve been sold about femininity, friendship, and what it means to be "good." The result is a story of friends that is as fierce as it is heartfelt.

Davis, known for her bold storytelling and keen eye for identity and justice, leans fully into both myth and memory here. Inspired by her own daughter’s princess phase and a desire to shake off the neat arcs of screenwriting, she’s created this nonlinear narrative as a kind of trust fall — writing by hand, out of order, and with the joyful chaos of a patchwork quilt. 

This unique experiment in playwriting and collaboration portends a possible disaster. However, Davis’s vision is brought to life by a baller cast and crew made up entirely of people who are not men. It’s a damn joy to behold.

I’d be giving away too much and failing to do the show justice to provide you with a plotline, but simply put, planning a wedding starts this show. It’s that usual milestone among friends that evokes all the memories of what came before. And, in the case of I WANNA BE A F*CKING PRINCESS, memories of… the future? 

Smartly directed by Patti Neff-Tiven with an assist from Davis for editing along the way, this is a swift and tight ride up and down the elevator of life that is recognizable to those who identify as female and the people who love them.

Shannon Grounds starts the show with a hearty and energetic flair as Zel, whose hilarious control issues wear on her friends, but later prove to fuel her unique ambition. It’s a sharply directed scene that sets off a welcome brisk pace. These women are archetypes we know, just like the princesses Davis refers to in the script. Nieve (Chelsea Manasseri) is a young woman cursed with beauty. I know, I know. Women scorn the beautiful among us, questioning whether beauty really is a curse, but it’s clear in Nieve that it is. Manasseri plays Nieve like a small woman in a big and gorgeous package, until she needs to be a big woman around small men. She learns how to use beauty to her advantage, and the advantage of her friend Bella (Jenny Larson Quiñones). Bella is that friend whose father epitomizes the capitalist patriarchy, and she’s out to fulfill her role in it. Her dad is a man who, to put it delicately, doesn’t respect the territorial boundaries that his canine wolf counterparts fully understand. Its costs land on Bella, who suffers repeated tragic circumstances throughout the show. Quiñones delivers to us the most horrific of life circumstances with energy, passion,and intimacy. Danu Mara brings to this cast the “bad girl” in Dre. Interestingly, Mara is a dead ringer for Snow White, and yet Dre somehow thinks she lives in the shadow of prettier women, selling herself short at great cost, of her own unique gifts and beauty.  Mara gives Dre a resigned bitterness that shines light into the depths of those of us who live either in the shadows of prettier women, or the stepmothers who live in the shadows of “real” moms. And, finally, this quintet is not complete without the woman who loves women, Ruby (kahttieQ). kahttieQ plays Ruby with the equal cuteness of the tomboy who wants to be the prince (Wolf?) and the intellectual who is jaded but willing to be struck by love. Davis’s literary prowess is on splendid display in some of Ruby’s monologues, and in a way, her story weaves the whole of the piece together.

I WANNA BE A F*CKING PRINCESS is an energetic 80 minutes that on opening night kept us engaged with its, well —  21st century pacing. It’s bursting with energy that includes over 100 light and sound cues. (A tip of the hat here to sound designer Vikki Schwarz and lighting designer Natalie George). The direction keeps us on our toes and awake. Neff-Tiven understands what it means to keep us engaged when our attention spans have been reduced to a total of eight seconds at a time from the onslaught of social media. That said, catching a breath here and there wouldn’t hurt as this is an intense production.

The show pulses with life: bawdy, sorrowful and celebratory.  With archetypes pulled from classic fairy tales: the wolf, the stepmother, the godmother reimagined through the lens of modern womanhood, PRINCESS asks not just who we’ve been taught to be, but who we get to become. Touching on everything from teenage lust to menopause, from failed marriages to childhood trauma, it holds fast to a spirit of playful irreverence. It doesn’t just reclaim fairy tales but makes them real. And if you walk away with anything, it may be the reminder that we don’t just wear the crown, we choose who we become when we do.

I WANNA BE A F*CKING PRINCESS

by Jenny Connell Davis
Directed by Patti Neff-Tiven

Ground Floor Theatre
979 Springdale Rd
Austin, TX, 78702

May 08 - May 25, 2025