Cinde(f*****)rella*—or Cinderella—by Erna Ómarsdóttir, Halla Ólafsdóttir, and Saga Kjerúlf Sigurðardóttir is a work-in-progress set to the music of Prokofiev.

On stage, three dancers and two pianists lead us into a chaotic search for hope, all while we love to hate being forced into one-dimensional molds. Or shoes.

The piece attempts to tell the story from the perspective of Cinderella’s stepsisters. Inviting the audience into the National Theatre’s basement, they act as dancing storytellers, presenting a fairy tale where cruelty, beauty, vanity, humor, and the despair of the imperfect human soul are revealed.

Cinde(f*****)rella* invites the audience into a world where toil and ecstasy fuel one another, where exertion creates beauty, and where the darkness of the fairy tale is just as vital as its light.

At its core, Cinde(f***)rella* is a spirited, unruly blend of ballet-exorcism and piano concerto, in which the familiar fairy tale serves as a gateway to something alien, darker, and more human.