Persistent and powerful, Elizabeth is a princess with a lot on her plate. But when a dragon storms her castle and flies away with her “beloved” Prince Ronald, things go from bad to worse. How does a princess rescue a prince if princes are supposed to do the rescuing?  Who decided that anyway?  Based on the renowned classic, The Paper Bag Princess follows our heroine Elizabeth and a cast of zany new characters on a wild, playful and puppet-filled adventure to discover that only you can determine your own path.

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Detailed synopsis

As the play begins, we meet princess Elizabeth’s Fairy Godmother, who looks and speaks quite differently than a traditional fairy godmother. She tells the tale of the beautiful princess Elizabeth, who lives in a big castle and wears fancy princess clothes. She is destined to marry Prince Ronald, a handsome and wealthy prince, son of her parents’ best friends. However, her godmother warns us that Elizabeth has another destiny: to be an extraordinary princess...

Unlike her sisters, Julia, Marg and Bethany, Elizabeth is an unusual princess who is more interested in playing outside than primping and preening. One morning, Ronald visits Elizabeth and he is pleased by her neat, princess-like appearance. They are interrupted by Sir Puffy the Pompous, the kingdom’s head knight, who has them practice a protocol to save them against a dragon attack.

Elizabeth shares with her father, the king, that she aspires to become Prime Minister rather than Queen, to lead - not rule, the kingdom. She is unhappy with her education, her “princess-iples” lessons that teach her how to be a traditional princess: placid, patient and poised. Suddenly, a dragon appears, smashes the castle, burns Elizabeth’s dress and most of the kingdom, and flies off with Prince Ronald.

Elizabeth, in her burned clothing and worried about Ronald, meets her fairy godmother, who sells her a paper bag dress and advises her to follow the trail of burned forests to find the dragon and save Ronald. Her sisters try to dissuade her from saving a prince, because it’s “not what princesses do”. Nevertheless, Elizabeth sets off on her quest to rescue Ronald.

After a long and difficult journey, Elizabeth, discouraged, is reminded by her godmother and father that she is able to accomplish anything to which she sets her mind. Elizabeth finds and outsmarts the dragon to rescue Ronald. The ungrateful prince is more concerned with Elizabeth’s disheveled appearance than what she has gone through to save him. After berating Ronald for being superficial and the dragon for the negative environmental impact his burned forests have on the ecosystem, Elizabeth leaves by herself.

While her sisters are shocked that Elizabeth has left her prince behind and no longer intends on marrying him, both her father and godmother are supportive and proud of her adventure and of her future plans of becoming Prime Minister.