CINDERELLA. To 17 January.

Northampton

CINDERELLA
by Peter Shorey

Royal Theatre To 17 January 2004
Mon-Sat 10.15 am (7,8 January) 2.15pm,7pm various dates no performance 1 January
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 01604 624811
www.royalandderngate.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 December

Intensely beautiful production with comic moments and some fine performances.There were times in this Cinderella when I wondered if Simon Godwin wanted to direct a pantomime at all. Despite a script from Peter Shorey (himself a serial dame) what emerges is something more rich and strange.

Foregoing full-blown panto's outrageous comedy, there's beautiful storytelling, and Jessica Curtis's sensational designs, which under Paul Dennant's atmospheric lighting - recall the theatre of magic worlds evoked by painted audience-facing flats, rather than realistic box sets. Through Curtis' delectable scenes - orange and green for the ballroom and a Fuseli-like sinister forest of twisted trunks included Godwin never loses sight of character.

The apple-tree scene which opens and closes the play is a beautiful place, where nature is beneficent, and Cinderella (sensitively played by Sophie Shaw) finds solace in the Hazel Tree associated with her dead mother. It's a kind of paradise, lost when Ugly Sisters Honey and Lemon come riding to hounds, astride recalcitrant ostriches.

They're the show's comic highlight, but the link with the Royal's autumn season focused on outsiders stays clear - the scene where Cinderella's invitation to the ball is ripped up by Cinders herself under their sadistic command is harrowing as any political drama. And the story's final image shows faithful Buttons alone, tidying the kitchen as his beloved exits with her Prince Charming.

Evil's fully expressed in Georgina Roberts' nameless Stepmother; with the Ball set for Hallowe'en it's unsurprising she eventually emerges as a power-seeking witch, kept at bay by her own loaded broomstick when Eileen Battye's gently restrained good Fairy intervenes, until she falls (to a motif from love-potion opera Tristan und Isolde) into a cauldron of reforming love potion meant to charm the Prince. Until then, Roberts' quietly sadistic intensity marks her out as vicious, despite manipulative smiles towards Stephen Boswell's weakly well-intentioned Baron.

Prince Charming looks and behaves handsome, but might sing in the same key as his princess-to-be. I was about to praise MD Tim Sutton, but in my entirely unbiased view he was two hairs'-breadth out in awarding the singing contest to the children over the adults. That apart, well done all round.

Cinderella: Sophie Shaw
Baron Hardship: Stephen Boswell
Stepmother: Georgina Roberts
Honey: Paul Kemble
Lemon: Tom Edden
Buttons: Alex McIntosh
Prince Charming: Jamie Bower
Dandini: Joseph Wicks
Fairy Godmother: Eileen Battye
Birds:
Codlins: Shona Ruth Eyre, Alice Llewellyn, Daniel Seath, Rebecca Spence, Christopher Thorneycroft
Pippins: Shanice Belfon, Amelia Knaggs, Samantha Pollitt, James Robinson, Jade Whyte

Director: Simon Godwin
Designer: Jessica Curtis
Lighting: Paul Dennant
Sound: Liam Matthews
Choreographer: Claire Russ

2003-12-27 00:00:00