Award winning writer Hattie Naylor can only be described as prolific- she's had over forty plays, three short stories, and an opera broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and 3. Her play 'Ivan and the dogs' for Soho Theatre was nominated in the 2010 Olivier Awards for Outstanding Achievement. Now she's back with her take on the darkly sexual fairytale, Bluebeard. We chatted to her about the origins of the tale, its misogynistic message and why we're turning to fairytales and fantasy in the current climate.

RR: Bluebeard is a pretty dark tale- did you first hear it as a child or an adult? What intrigued you about it?

HN: Bluebeard is a very odd fairy tale. The monsters in fairy tales are usually ogres, or beasts, the unreal, but Bluebeard himself is human and real. His torture chamber, in which he has mercilessly murdered six previous wives,it also sits very oddly within the fairy tale canon with it's graphic reality. Fairy tales are historically warnings. The story is often talked of as a warning against curiosity but is one justified in brutally killing your wife for opening a door? I don't know about you, but I intend to spend my life opening doors. The previous sentence you can read literally or allegorically.

The tale is a misogynist's wet dream and it is no coincidence that it's the dubious Charles Perrault that brings it to our country rather than the fabulous Grimms' with their universal tales taken mostly from female storytellers or the revolutionary and humane Hans Christian Andersen who is the first writer to write stories for children that are designed to be read out loud. It tells women to tread carefully and not pander to curiosity or you will have a brutal comeuppance which your male partner is justified in doing.

The story's intention is to make us more fearful and to stop asking questions. 

RR: Is your Bluebeard a feminist take on the traditional tale- as in the tradition of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, for example?

HN: Feminism is banded about as a word to be ashamed of. I expect my sovereignty, to do a job I like, say what I think, be listened too and have my independence. I can have these things in this country but there are many countries across the world where women do not have this. I don't want to hunt men down or castrate them, some of 'my best friends are men' and I have no war with them - I don't want to be a man, I just want my soveriegnity intact like everybody else and I know it has been acheived to a great extent in the UK- because of the shoulders of the Feminists I stand on.

RR: There seems to have been a real resurgence in adaptations of fairytales- we had a number of interpretations of Snow White in the cinemas only recently- why do you think this is?

HN: There has been a real resurgence of Fairytale because there is a movement away from realism. In a harsher world, where there is growing poverty, and when we are facing a climate change catastrophe people will always revert to fantasy. This is to be both commended and considered. The allegory in a fairy tale or in fantasy is often greater than that in realism, perhaps when we are faced with such urgent and fractious reality we seek greater meaning in art and story. 

See Bluebeard at Soho Theatre from 5th-17th November.