HHHH
If you're going to take risks with traditions, then the Christmas production is not necessarily a bad time to go off the beaten track: most children only expect what parents tell them. Lyceum director Mark Thomas has boldly opted to recruit writer Johnny McKnight (who revitalised pantomime at Stirling's MacRobert), ally him with composer Alan Penman and let them loose on that perennial favourite, Cinderella.
For sure, this well-acted and good-looking modern day version is not really a panto – though it does have a couple of sisters who are all trashy-glam on the outside, deep-down ugly on the inside and consistently funny with it. Colette (Nicola Roy) and Camille (Jo Freer) are well-schooled in the trademark ways of McKnight mouthy middens. Their mother, the malevolent Monique (Jayne McKenna) is posh tottie in clinging dominatrix leather with an electrifying (literally) touch, but her offspring are pure dead common and their killing ways are courtesy of McKnight's snippy-sniping comedy flair.
This trio wangle their way into Cinderella's life and take over. Can the ghost of her mother come to the rescue? Will she see through Prince Pierre, no blue-blood but a fake-baked, hilariously arrogant TV celeb who needs a wife to boost his ratings? Sly parodies of popular trends mix with the perennial conflict between good – the maternal spirit who is always exquisitely airborne – and the nightmarish menace of Monique. Between times, tuneful songs colour in the emotional subtext that draws Cinderella towards true love, and the mysterious Boy who can never speak his heart. It's a form of music-theatre that won't be to all tastes or suit younger audiences, but it does grip the imagination with a shock and sizzle, rather like Monique's caress.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article