A TRIUMPHANT WATCH INFUSED WITH MAGIC AND CHRISTMAS CHEER

By Rachel Cameron-Potter | Stuff Rachel Says ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

When a showing of Cinderella at Christmastime springs to mind, you’d be forgiven for immediately thinking of a pantomime. With fairy godmothers (three, to be exact), a handsome prince and a whole lot of magic, there’s certainly a nod to the festive pantomime tradition – but this Rose theatre rendition comes with a twist.

From the minds of writers Chris Bush and Roni Neale, this festive retelling turns this rags-to-riches story on its head off the bat. Instead of the kind, charming Cinderella you’d remember from the fairytale, Ella (Maddy Hunter) is quite the opposite. Instead, she’s a petulant, stroppy teenager and, upset with her mother’s decision to spend Christmas on a cruise with her new husband, resorts to bestow a less than festive atmosphere on her father’s house, snapping at her gentle stepmother (Kara Lily Hayworth) and nicknaming her “ugly” baby half-sisters Snotty and Grotty.

After a dispute that ends with Ella reminding stepmother Lilith that she’s “not her mother”, the teary teenager is visited not by one fairy godmother, but by three – Ruby (Lily Quille), Sapphire (Maia O’Dwyer) and Cubic Zirconia (Ellie Searle) – who transform the festive pumpkin into a carriage and her dowdy lounge clothes into a glittering ballgown. To finish the look, Ella steals the golden slippers meant for Lilith from under the tree, before crashing her pumpkin carriage in King’s Town (just down the road from Rich Mound) in front of the castle, where Prince Chadley (Joaquin Pedro Valdes), in classic fairytale fashion, so happens to be.

This change of scene – from Kingston to Kings Town – does well to explain Ryan Dawson Laight’s seemingly scarce set design. The first scenes of the play are centred around a small, cramped cross-section of a house, with Ella’s attic bedroom only accessible by climbing atop the kitchen counter. It’s only when this house is rotated to reveal Chadley’s quarters, heralding a change of scene, that we realise why Laight chose not to go for a more sprawling set.

In these quarters, we learn more about the dashing Prince Chadley and his “affliction” (which, whenever mentioned, is accompanied by flashing lights and a loud, crashing sound – funny the first few times, but eventually quite jarring as it interrupts the flow of the narrative). From a conversation with his “bros”, he reveals a family curse has left him unable to recognise faces, making him reliant on articles of clothing to identify who he has in his company. While this explains the age-old question of why the prince is so heavily reliant on Cinderella’s shoe in the classic fairytale, it doesn’t quite explain why he can’t memorise voices or other distinctive features – something pointed out by children in the audience mid-performance.

Plot hole aside, when Prince Chadley meets Ella, he comes to associate her with the glittery shoes she wears, and promises he’ll meet her at the ball later that night. Only in the shadows do we see Lady Dungeness (Kara Lily Hayworth, who also plays Lilith) scheming to steal the shoes, so her own daughters, Snotterella and Groterella (a callback to the Snotty and Grotty baby twins), can steal the prince. The plan succeeds, and as the second act gets underway, Ella realises that perhaps home with her vegan stepmother and infant half-sisters isn’t all so bad.

While the script offers the right amount of cheesiness you’d expect from a family show, the cast made it a whole lot of fun to watch. Notable mentions go to Hannah Akhalu and Corrina Buchan as the quarrelsome Snotterella and Grotterella, particularly for their colourful, catchy number “If The Shoe Fits”, and Radley (Louie McKillop) and Bradley (Dylan Corchete-Quan) for bringing their bromance to the stage.

Another notable mention goes to Hayworth for her portrayals of Lilith and Lady Dungeness, where she creates a stark enough contrast between the two characters that go far beyond a wardrobe change. She did well to depict Lady Dungeness as a devious fairytale villain caricature, but as Lilith she really shone. Nothing could compare to her delivery of Lilith’s heart-wrenching ballad “The Witching Hour”, where she reveals her love and concern for a missing Ella who is, at the time, locked in the dungeon of King’s Town. She captures the anxieties and frustrations of being a step-parent in every line, adding a more vulnerable edge to a character that could easily have been typecast as a wicked stepmother.

Perhaps the best character in the whole show was Jack Fernie’s Mr Bingles, a cat-turned-footman who rapidly rises through the ranks, taking the titles of Mayor, ordained minister and, eventually, King. Whether lounging about in the background or delivering cat jokes in his haughty, aloof manner, Fernie stole every scene he was in, and was a joy to watch throughout.

While written exclusively for Kingston’s Rose Theatre, this rendition of Cinderella is compelling enough to thrive outside its home stage. Its slightly uneven plot can easily be overlooked by the amount of heart that sits at the core of this production, and the infectious cheer of the cast makes it impossible not to enjoy yourself, too. A triumphant watch infused with magic, perfect for anyone in need of some Christmas cheer.

Cinderella is running at Rose Theatre until Sunday 4 January.

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Photo Credit:  Mark Douet