CINDERELLA. To 3 January.

Glasgow

CINDERELLA
by Forbes Masson

Tron Theatre To 3 January 2004
Mon-Sat 2,5,7.30,8pm various dates no performance 1 January
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 0141 552 4267
www.tron.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 December

It's seriously sophisticated stuff, this laughaloud panto.Forbes Masson's second annual Tron panto has fun with genre, staging and audience. It brings panto to the TV age, broadcasting to Tartania nowhere could be rainier (guess which local country this is modelled on). In Tartania there's a TV contest to find Pop God. Who'd think it could be shy Buttons so insignificant he's first seen shuffling through the auditorium and has to be called from the streets er, aisles to be transformed into heart-swoon Troon Colquhoon cue one bit of audience participation?

His evil impresario is George Drennan's loomingly menacing Daniel Demetrius Knee for short, Dan D. Knee (how complicit can an audience become in these crushing panto puns?) who transforms the lad's costume and manner and makes him a singing idol for the televised final.

Which he should win as his main rival is Ugly sis duo Laurie McNicoll hard girl doubtless with outstanding Highers in domination and colourful Callum Cuthbertson, pettily nasty to Cinderella and brightly dressed to kill - on sight probably, on impact certainly, given the enormous distortion of the female form striding ahead of her main physique at every step.

But there's a surprise entrant, a princess of pop, who scoops the pool in her slinky dress and wee silvery boots - no glass or fur in this high fashion world. Helped by her Fairy Dog Mother (it all seems logical while it's happening) this is Cinders, leaving behind her kitchen with its anthropomorphic solid-fuel heater, clearly Scots Italian (Co-Al Fur-Nah-Che' as it insists in being called), into which the benevolent dog's nearly been fed by the Uglies.

You're right, it really is a load of old shoe menders, but handled by Masson with such careless confidence and performed by an experienced Scottish troupe with a pace and style wholly unified in Gordon Dougall's detailed production you're swept along in a conspiracy of irony only The Rocky Horror Show or singalong screenings with bouncy balls of old musical could match it. It's party-time and we all join in, noting the skill that's gone into making it a special party event.

Cinderella: Frances Thorburn
Buttons: James Mackenzie
Fairy Dog Mother: Fletcher Mathers
Ugly Sister: Laurie McNicoll
Ugly Sister: Callum Cuthbertson
Daniel Demetrius Knee: George Drennan
Musician: Bob Brown

Director: Gordon Dougall
Designer: Vicki Cowan
Lighting: Paul Sorley
Musical director: Davey Anderson
Choreographer: Linda Payne

2003-12-26 12:40:55