Cinderella, in the middle of a full blown mid-life crisis, comes face to face with the lies she has told herself and is thrust into the stories of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Rapunzel exposing their emotionally treacherous stories of sexual abuse, abandonment, and betrayal, unearthing her own past she has tried to forget, and discovering the possibility of a new story, of her own making.

Produced March 10-13, 2022 at 224 Waverly Place Theater, NYC
with help of a generous grant from Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation
Directed by Linda Manning
Original Music by Jono Hill

2019 Finalist for the Kentucky Women Writers Prize

Reviews from an earlier version produced as part of the New York Int'l Fringe Festival:

"The ensemble of actresses are remarkable, particularly the evocative and nuanced performance by Manning. Bite the Apple is a smart script with intricate dialogue and beautiful language...."
Joseph Samuel Wright, Theatre Is Easy, New York, NY

“Part adaptation, part re-telling, and part re-imagining, Linda Manning’s new play Bite the Apple persuades the audience members to reconnect with their stories, identify where their journeys have derailed, and reaffirm that each of them is ‘worth saving.’ And although this appeal is made through the lives of fictional women to ‘non-fictional’ women, its urgent entreaty is for all who have ears to hear and eyes to see.... Yes, Linda Manning can make this stuff up and indeed it does not get much better than this well-constructed play....  See Bite the Apple. Watch it, listen to it, see it, hear it, savor it, and continue to chew on its core until you know ‘which version of you is the right one.’”
David Roberts, Chief Critic, Theatre Reviews Limited, New York, NY