FERNDALE, Mich.–The story of Pygmalion is pretty timeless. No matter the year, the decade, or era, it is a yarn filled with easily accessible irony. As a young lady is being made over by people who purport to be better and smarter than she, the truth is that they are, in most ways, far worse. And if they would just learn to accept Eliza Doolittle as she is, they might learn something about good heartedness.

In the hands of The Slipstream Initiative, Pygmalion has been transformed and updated practically to the minute as P.Y.G., the modernization depicting a reality TV show in which a transgendered teen is going to compete against young women for the “Pretty. Young, Girl (P.Y.G.) title.

Young Jackson Abohasira captures the stage as Alyssa, the shy transgendered teen who is wanting a hand up to something better–emotionally and financially. And she wants to be seen as pretty. Abohasira, with help from costume designer Tiaja Sabrie, is not only believable and credible as a pretty transgendered young woman, but he often strikes the most perfect facial expression and body tilt when acting opposite Hank–played by Steve Xander Carson, when he realizes that his makeover mentor is sexually excited by Alyssa, but is loathe to admit it. Those fleeting moments between the two appropriately lift the tension and stakes of the story, and give Alyssa something more to work with than victimhood.

Bailey Boudreau and Maxim Vinogradov co-wrote and co-directed the play, and they created a terrific foil to Alyssa in the character of Vicki, played by Luna Alexander, who, as the hard-boiled, cussing, sharp shouldered network executive is in a less obvious, but no less transparent, game of transgendering herself–being as hard as any man in her business despite her expensive wardrobe, jewelry and bubbling sexuality. Cate (played by Kaitlyn Valor Bourque) is the southern, socially emaciated previous-year winner of P.Y.G. who is angry and rattled over Alyssa’s ascent, and lords her vagina over the challenger.

The Slipstream’s new space allows for corridors from the main performance areas to be used, and they are smartly employed, as in one scene where we only hear Cate open the ladies room door only to find Alyssa, and then complain that she is in the wrong bathroom. Talk about current events.

Ryan Ernst takes a turn as a stacked, worldly, blonde bombshell transgendered celebrity Mizz Higgins who mentors Alyssa a bit and challenges her to get a better grip on herself and compass heading. Jan Cartright take a brief turn as Alyssa’s creepy Mother. Sabrie as Pearce is the show’s costumer both behind the scenes and on-stage in the story, and commands some of the show’s better laugh moments, including when she enters and is clearly playing Pokemon Go–another nod to up-to-the-hour timeliness of the script.

P.Y.G. is a fun, creative, penetrating update on the classic. Shaw, we’d like to think, would be proud of the effort here by Boudreau and Vinogradov to keep his story so timely. With current events reflecting biases, jealousies, fears, violence, bullying and exploitation that governed Shaw’s time, and every year since and before he wrote the original, it is a memorable treatment that should hold up for years–except for maybe the Pokemon Go reference.

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Editor’s Note: Harsh and bawdy language. Adults bringing teens are advised.