Cinderella

Ben Crocker Pantomime script of Cinderella with thirteen named parts including the Pantomime horse is packed with puns and comedy business around the traditional story although it does play with the subplots to freshen it up. The Uglies have just been expelled from school, Charming does get to know Cinderella’s name but does not recognise her as Crystal and it is the stepmother who tears up her ticket not the Uglies forcing her to do it herself. In this production there is no magical transformation and exit in a carriage at the end of Act 1. The focus on the comedy business does extend the running time to over two and a half hours but for a delightfully inclusive community society like CAST it does give everyone a decent amount of stage time and they looked like they were enjoying the experience as much as their friends and family and the scouts were enjoying watching them.

The painted back cloths were beautifully created in soft pastel shades with good perspective for the Village green, castle forecourt, ballroom and woods and there were many well designed props to enhance the business and add to the visual fun. There was a good musical selection too which suited the cast voices and enabled them to effortlessly deliver the tunes in a very good sound mix which meant you could hear every word.

It is always wonderful to see the tradition of Principal boy played by a female, but this production went further with over half the principals cast on a gender-blind basis accommodating the societies mix of available talent and making a virtue of it to add to the comic reactions which the cast managed very well. The result was an enjoyable show with some strong highlights and some good performances especially from the Fairy Godmother, Buttons and an excellent pantomime horse.

It is always a pleasure to visit Colnbrook Village Hall and I always leave with a sense that this is a lovely society to work with plenty of familiar regulars and lots of young faces and returning performers with a shared responsibility to put on a show and have fun in the process.

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