Isabella Down To Earth: Once Oberon, King of the Fairies, makes the mistake of introducing his daughter Isabella to the mortal realm, she develops a taste for mortal men. Ben is the man in question, a young merchant banker from New York, NY, not given to fantasies of any sort and no believer in fairies. The Fairy Land, which operates on fairy logic, comes into collision with the realities, some good, some bad, some simply hilarious, of modern urban life as we mortals know it—from Starbucks and Grand Central to the Bonn tower blocks by way of the Tube, the panto and the London Eye, and back to the wizards of Wall Street. Complications arise: Ben blots his copybook; Isabella’s back home but so miserable that primroses sprout from her tears. Merlin’s merely doddery, Puck’s merely irritating, Grimalkin hasn’t the power to help, Oberon’s thunderous… Perhaps the Faerie Queen, Titania, Queen of All the Fairies, Great Majesty, Queen Mab, will sort it out! Nobody puts much faith in that one, given her past record. How will Ben and Isabella ever live happily ever after?
Isabella Down To Earth is at once a celebration and a critique of the way we live now. Seen through fairy eyes, some of our urban commonplaces take on quite a new shine. To a fairy, the dubious modern treats of muffins, donuts, Oreos, and hamburgers, with or without gherkins, all have a certain appeal. Coffee hits, trendy ethnic restaurants, underground railways, all look different in a fairy perspective. As do the big urban centres like London, New York, Paris and Bonn and their great urban icons. “Starbucks” strikes as magical; London’s “pickle” is puzzling. The Empire State? We-ell, fairies can fly.
And some of the old tales that we’ve known since our childhood turn out to be not what we expect. They were, after all, written down by mortals. Fairy logic sees them rather differently. Even Father Christmas, in his Realm of Snow, isn’t quite how we envisage Santa. Or take the Danish icon of icons, in Copenhagen: Isabella will have to summon all her strength to break the spell that holds the little mermaid captive in her bronze prison.
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