Cinderella

If the audience on opening night was any guide, the people of Tadcaster could scarcely wait to be back in their theatre after the trials of all these last months. Cinderella’s original uncertainty about attending the ball and its marital consequences were, therefore, resolved satisfactorily in front of a near full house.

This company had suffered more than most last March in that their scheduled production of “Spamalot” was cancelled within a matter of days of its intended opening night. It was, therefore, not too much of a surprise when we discovered that three of King Arthur’s knights had somehow wandered into the village of Stoneybroke, complete with three of their songs. This brought a welcome addition to the usual familiar story, although other innovations involved a fairy rapper in the form of Fairy G, Becky Hawkins coping with the rapid fire of the words with apparent ease.  Another was the appropriately named Hagan, Cinderella’s ever hungry horse (hay gone, get it?), with her own qualification (PhD – panto horse diploma) and nimble pairs of left and right feet to display some good terpsichorean skills of Amber Mawer and Beth Redmond. This, together with Bob the bunny and, of course, Cinders herself were all in the tender care of Buttons, played with just the right amount of silly charm by Kevin Bowes.  His excellent rapport with the audience began with his very first entrance. Chris Meadley and Peter Wookie made a good job of their roles as ugly sisters, desperate for male company. More comedy came from Jo Hawkins and Tamsyn Chadwick as Bodget and Leggett, builders with an eye on the re-development of Hardship Hall, much to the dismay of its financially-challenged owners, Peter and Beverley Fletcher as the Baron and his recently and perhaps over-enthusiastically found wife.  Evelyn Wright gave a charming performance in the title role with good support from Alison Davies and Ruby Simpson as the Prince and his valet respectively.   

The writer, Alan Frayn, has produced many pantomime scripts including a special version for Tadcaster a few years ago with references to the collapse and subsequent re-building of the bridge. There were a number of local references here and plenty of humour from jokes old and new.  The whole thing was well staged, especially numbers involving the full company and I particularly enjoyed the hunting scene in the forest.  A four-piece band accompanied most of the songs whilst others had recorded music. Although it was quite a lengthy affair, the production moved well enough to keep us interested throughout and, having waited two years since the last panto experience here, who was complaining?  And we were all home before midnight - well, I was!                     

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