Howard Barker has written several plays that radically rework established texts. Arguably the most acclaimed of these has been Gertrude-the Cry (from Shakespeare's Hamlet].

With The Snow White Conspiracy [Murdoch University’s take on his title Knowledge and the Girl] Barker turns his observation of the darkest motivations of human behaviour onto the 'wicked stepmother' –the Queen from the Grimm brothers' tale of Snow White. This version holds a complex mirror up to the original tale and the story no longer belongs to Snow White, but rather to the Queen. The Queen is the protagonist who resists the misogynistic structure of the court. When she, in accordance with the Grimm’s tale, is invited to the wedding of Snow White and forced to put on red-hot shoes and dance until she drops down dead, she remains stoic through to her end. Snow White can only admire her determined resistance.