CINDERELLA. To 19 January.
London.
CINDERELLA
by Trish Cooke and Robert Hyman.
Theatre Royal Stratford East To 19 January 2008.
Tue-Sat various dates 10.15am, 1.45pm, 3pm, 7pm
Audio-described 3 Jan 3pm & 7pm.
Captioned 11 Jan 7pm, 12 Jan 3pm..
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 8534 0310.
www.stratfordeast.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 December.
Hip, hop, hooray for panto at E15.
There could hardly be more difference between the two pantomimes I’ve seen this year, each expressing its community. Chipping Norton’s Rapunzel has a gentle, uniformly White literacy that reflects a prosperous Oxfordshire country town. While East London buzzes through the street-wise vocab, the multi-cultural inclusiveness and the zinging energy of this pulsating show.
It’s a knowing, fast-moving piece, its songs (Robert Hyman’s music to jointly-authored lyrics) rhythmic and varying in style, like Trish Cooke’s dialogue, between formal patterns for older characters and youth-speak/singing for the young. These include a poser of a Prince (the feisty, joyous Cinders is very good for him) and his self-fancying attendant Don Dini who fears the prince's marriage will reduce his influence (palace gates open when he announces “It’s the Don”).
Back home, Cinderella has a friend in a much-badged Buttons and an impoverished artist father; one of his horrid new wife’s actions is removing his paintings, especially the comically cubist portrait of his first, dead wife - who appears, airborne in a balloon basket, as fairy-godmother, also being the mother’s spirit inspiring her child.
Who’s suffering a trio of bullies, Step-sisters Sugary and Spicy are not so much physically as morally ugly. They suppurate nastiness through hard and spiteful expressions, neatly contrasted. But it’s their mother who leads the way, a cheque-book wielding big-spender, who’s married her way into a title and threatens Cinders about the consequences of letting on to her father what lies behind his new wife’s smiles.
Michael Bertenshaw’s an experienced E15 villainess and it shows in a quick, detailed lightness of manner as he smiles to the Baron’s face and threatens over his shoulder. Or introduces new cruelties with apparent reasonable calm, until turning first on the Baron, then the audience with a mocking run-through of all the staple pantomime exchanges.
Another E15 regular, designer Jenny Tiramani, knows how to make a colourful splash on a budget and artistic director Kerry Michael swings things along. One tactical error: Fairy-godmother asks for help; the audience is eager to provide it but isn’t actually asked. That apart, this is a joy through-and-through.
Buttons: Darren Hart.
Cinderella: Debbie Korley.
Baron Pierre Sans Rien: Royce Ullam.
Woz Mine-Izzmine: Michael Bertenshaw.
Sugary: Sharona Sassoon.
Spicy: Catherine Millsom.
Don Dini: Marcus Ellard.
Prince Leo: Kyl Messios.
Fairy Godmother: Debbralee Wells.
Queen Eugenie: Ellen O’Grady.
With: Rose Mary Christian, Sammy Razack.
Director: Kerry Michael.
Designer/Costume: Jenny Tiramani.
Lighting: chris Davey.
Sound: Graham Simpson.
Choreographer: Omar F Okai.
Assistant director: Mathilde Lopez.
2007-12-26 18:39:04