Mara

Mara is a darkly compelling reimagining of the Cinderella story – told from the perspective of the stepmother.

We meet Mara as a spirited, ambitious girl desperate to escape her prescribed destiny and transcend her mother’s fate. Books sharpen her mind. Marriage to a wealthy widower seems to promise a new beginning. But the fantasy unravels. The families won’t blend. Her husband vanishes. And Mara is left in a house full of resentment, caring for a stepdaughter who will never love her.

This is not a fairytale – it’s a reckoning. Set in a crumbling home haunted by broken promises, Mara explores the emotional terrain of blended families: grief, belonging, identity, and the complex bonds between parents and children.

Visually rich and fiercely inventive, the work unfolds in a black-box world where a single actor and live musician conjure an entire collapsing universe. Chairs become horses. Golden shoes speak. Paper births babies. Ten characters – children, parents, lovers, ghosts – emerge through voice, movement, puppetry, object transformation, and eight original songs.

The aesthetic is dark, contemporary fairytale: moody lighting, a stripped-back set, and immersive animation transform the stage into a living storybook. Mara is a Brechtian folktale – a collision of yearning, memory, music and myth.

Acclaimed theatre maker Megan Jones and Machination Theatre Ensemble return to the Playlist with an emotionally resonant new work unlike any Cinderella you’ve ever seen.