Cinderella

Cinderella, as performed by KYDS was a highly entertaining show. The relative lack of set, given the restrictions imposed by Thurstable School, didn’t seem to matter; there was sufficient colour provided by the costumes. This was a young and inexperienced cast, with only a handful of 17 years olds at the upper end of the age range but they danced and sang well, aided by microphones and a sympathetic sound system. All the usual characteristics of a pantomime were in place, with cross-dressing (on this occasion provided by the Ugly Sisters rather than a dame), a dancing horse, a comedy duo (Bodgett and Leggett), audience participation and plenty of slapstick. This was certainly one of the wittiest panto scripts I have come across and the dialogue helped enormously in giving the young company a strong base to work with. The technical components of the show all seemed to work well, with the ballroom clock being a particularly fascinating piece of kit. It seemed to move fluidly and continuously and yet miraculously got to 12 midnight at the correct point in the dialogue. How did that work? Well done back stage crew.

The choice of songs clearly suited a young company and presumably a youngish audience and the choreography was appropriate to the dance skills of the company.  Around half of the company had a named part, with solo lines or dialogue, so this was a good choice of show for the group, providing valuable experience to those who have little experience of stage work. There are too many characters to mention individually but I can’t ignore the Ugly Sisters who seemed to be never off the stage.  They developed a great rapport with the audience and provided the focus for the main running gag throughout the show, that of their propensity to being “man mad”. Whoever John was in the audience was clearly a good sport since he was the stooge that allowed Grizelda (a great debut by Tom Nicoll) to fire off so many great one liners.

Well done to all for a very enjoyable show. 

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