There are some festive shows that defy easy rating, and the Rose’s latest festive bonanza is just such a candidate. While I didn’t find it as genuinely magical as some of this excellent theatre’s previous Christmas delights, it nonetheless positively oozes energy and once again showcases the considerable talents of the Rose’s young company, who work alongside a core group of professional actors; here, it was the green cast in action.
OUR VERDICT
Mark Douet
Chris Bush and Roni Neale have taken the traditional story of Cinderella and given it a comical modern makeover as a blended family approach Christmas with some trepidation.
Teenage Ella (Maddy Hunter in her professional debut) longs for freedom and adventure and resents her stepmother’s vegan cooking and her new twin sisters whom she nicknames Grotty and Snotty.
Quirkily, Bush and Neale have upturned the conventional image of Cinderella as an exploited victim of her stepmother’s malevolence; here, Ella is a rather petulant and sulky girl, her stepmother a reasonable woman trying to understand a difficult teenager.
Mark Douet
Courtesy of some seasonal fairy dust, Ella is suddenly transported, via the fridge (a neat touch), to a magical kingdom where a Prince seeks his true love and wicked Lady Dungeness plots mayhem, aided and abetted by her grotesque daughters, Snotterella and Grotterella, who offer great fun.
Ryan Dawson Laight’s simple but effective central set has a revolving house functioning both as Ella’s family home and the Prince’s castle, and it works well overall, allowing the young cast lots of stage space in which to roam.
Mark Douet
Many amongst this young cast are terrific, special mention being given to Ella’s lovelorn friend Buttons (Arthur Polidoro Williams) the engaging trio of cheese-fixated mice and the wonderful cat Mr Bingles, personified in all his languid glory by the tall Jack Fernie who deftly captures something of the spirit of a young Julian Clary in his arch, witty performance which is no mean feat.
Ella herself is all rumbustious energy, a little too manic at times and the Prince’s curse of face blindness ( which means he can’t recognise Ella) seems too stagy but the idea behind the overly convoluted plot is solid, offering everyone the prospect this Christmas of a ‘happy start’ rather than the fantastical happy ending tacked onto so many a fairytale.
