The plot? That’s Spanish playwright Lope de Vega’s, from his La Dama Boba (circa 1613), adapted for this Sydney Theatre Company 2024 season opener by Van Badham.

The setting? The far north coast of New South Wales. Land of golf clubs, new money palazzos, cashed-up influencers and desperate opportunists.

The vibe? Pure Barbie. Like, hunnardpercent!

Contessa Treffone in A Fool in Love. Photo © Daniel Boud

Badham (Banging Denmark) spins a mix of barbed wire and fairy floss from de Vega’s story of sibling beauties whose father, Otavio, is hoping to marry off to whoever can stand them for more than five minutes at a stretch.

Older sister Vanessa (played by Melissa Kahraman) is a poet-influencer with a stratospherically high opinion of her own superiority. Younger sister Phynayah (Contessa Treffone) is an utter dill, and whom an absent uncle has promised to shower with riches if she marries before her 30th birthday. If she doesn’t, uncle’s moolah goes to a donkey festival somewhere in Spain.

Otavio (Johnny Nasser) is in debt up to the eyeballs and as far as he is concerned, just about anything with a pulse will do for a husband. But...