LadyCake (Three Birds Theatre)

When Princess Diana was killed in 1997, in a horrific Parisian car crash while fleeing a mob of paparazzi, she was suddenly beatified by her bereaved and adoring public. "She was the people's princess, and that is how she will remain, in our hearts and minds forever," said the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair as news of her death broke; "The unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana," her brother, Earl Spencer, concluded in his eulogy at her televised funeral. Whether or not she truly was so pristine, down to earth and altruistic is neither here nor there - in the eyes of the people, she was a shining, irrepressible example of perfection.

Some two hundred years earlier, another Royal woman's blood was spilled on the streets of Paris: the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Her life, like Diana's, was a whirlwind of intrigue, glamour, decadence, celebrity and rumour. Both these women were tortured by the competing pressures of self versus duty, and ultimately, they were both destroyed by this conflict. However, unlike Princess Di, Marie's posthumous legend was far from glorifying. It would become a study in post-truth sensationalism; a mishmash of shocking excess, loose morals and deliciously salacious gossip, twisted and embellished by romanticising historians and scandal-making pamphleteers.

Three Birds Theatre's LadyCake explores Marie Antoinette's story through the medium of hearsay. A trio of courtly handmaidens, in the opulent epicentre of the French monarchy at the Palace of Versailles, are whipped into a flurry of anticipation as they await the imminent arrival from Austria of the future king's teenage bride-to-be. She is flawless, elegant and enchanting, a vision of vitality and regal splendour - or at least that's how she is rumoured to be. Their clucky, swooning adoration allows us to see through their eyes how Marie Antoinette became an otherworldly myth. Her tears are surely "joyful", her excessive drinking, gambling and spending, a sign of joie de vivre? Their blinkered belief that their anointed Queen must represent the epitome of grace, poise and effortless beauty, blinds them to her flawed humanity, even when it is right in front of them.

We also see how the very qualities the court demands make her despised by the common masses. Marie Antoinette is a focal point for extremes of both hate and love, but what seems clear is that the reasons for those polarised perceptions have little to do with her reality. It is a smeared jumble of fact and fiction, contaminating her history until it becomes impossible to tell truth from slander.

This freshly devised production, created by Candace Miles, Madelaine Nunn and Anna Rodway, is streamlined, unselfconscious, quietly clever and visually slick. It's a work that isn't afraid to take risks, and released from that cautious straightjacket, takes full advantage of the freedom to experiment. The foundation this piece is built on - an exploration of female subjugation through the fun-house mirrored lens of a notoriously defamed woman - could easily become bogged down by historical stodge or didactic finger-wagging, but buoyed up by its quirky, well-judged comedy, it's a show that comfortably holds an audience's attention. This is patient storytelling, that doesn't feel the need to gloat about its intelligence, although quite clearly a great deal of research and investigation has gone into developing this fully fleshed-out response. Nods to contemporary resonances, suggesting parallels between the 18th-century propagandists and insidious online trolls, never seek to make too big a wink to the audience, instead allowing these references to hang in the air, to be picked up if so desired.

This brief premiere season at the Poppy Seed Theatre Festival is no doubt a very welcome platform for Three Birds Theatre, but the shortcomings of the venue are a disappointing distraction from this piece. Muffled rock music from an adjacent space at the Trades Hall is a constant niggling presence on the evening I attend. The cast doesn't let this throw them, but it's an ironic metaphor nonetheless: in a culture that so drastically undervalues the power of theatre, emerging talent often has to shout in order to be heard.

Three Birds Theatre presents LadyCake, at Trades Hall to 27 Nov. Part of the Poppy Seed Theatre Festival