Cinderella

Cinderella was certainly the panto of choice this year for the amateur societies and I saw several fine productions. Of course, over the many years that Friendship Theatre have been performing, one has come to expect wonderful and magical things of this talented company and by jove this production did not disappoint.

Beautifully cast, as always, the ensemble added much to the production, singing heartily, staying well-focused on stage and there was some fabulous choreography with some talented dancers.

The principals were no strangers to the stage or indeed to the audience who eagerly awaited each arrival. Liz Bevan was the perfect Fairy Godmother, Wynne Seaborne donned the beard and ‘greyed-up’ for the part of Baron Hardashian and the wonderful Alan Willaims gave us a dame to remember as the Baroness. The Ugly Sisters, Khloe and Kourtney, worked well on stage together and delighted the audience and the gruesome twosome were played by director, Dean Verbeeck and Greg Arthur. The comedy trouble makers Legget and Bodget were played by Sean Davies and Mark S Rees and Danny Messagiero gave a great cameo performance as Chambers.

The inimitable Denny Twp, Denys Jenkins, thrilled the audience, as he always does, and was fabulous on stage with all members of the cast, bringing that certain ‘je ne c’est quoi’ that other pantomimes sometimes lack. Ben Thomas was a suitably charming Prince demonstaring a lovely voice and good stage presence and his side-kick Dandini was characterised excellently by Stephen Mcdermid. The title role of Cinderella was beautifully played by Ania Davies and she too had a lovely voice and had the perfect amount of vulnerability and a little sassiness thrown in too! There was a magical moment during the show, for which the technical team must be highly commended, as at the end of the first act Cinderella climbed aboard her carriage which then proceeded to fly high off the stage. It was a truly wonderful moment which had the audience out their seats in a well-deserved ovation! What an incredible moment indeed. Many thanks to the entire company and we very much look forward to next year!

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