Author's Note:

Cinderella was originally going to be our 2020 Panto and...well, we all know what happened there. So it became our 2021 Pantomime, signalling our come back to the stage still in a covid environment. We didn't know what was going to happen, and there was a possibility we might have had to limit people on stage so it was written so if necessary groups of chorus could come on and off flexibly. As it happened we didn't have to do that so Chorus had a lot of stage time! I don't think I sat down back stage for more than five minutes.

Anyway, it is the classic story with more than a couple of twists. I've always felt that Buttons got a raw deal, so here Buttons is not in love with Cinders, but with Dandini who is definitely female and he and Cinderella are bff's. The magic slipper glows in the presence of true love, so becomes a homing shoe and...my pet peeve with the fairy tale is Cinderella sits and waits for her happy ever after. Not this Cinderella, she is proactive and earns her Happy Ever After and the (Fairy) Godmother is not above manipulating situations so she can tick off her Wish List! The Ugly Sisters drove most of the comedy in epic style and the Baroness was able to be incredibly evil while fooling the Baron seamlessly.

We were also adamant that we had to have a transforming dress - we managed it and it got spontaneous applause and a cheer every night - and equally adamant that we would then top that with a UV scene transforming mice to horses, Lizards to footmen and the pumpkin to carriage! It knocked everyone's socks off and we had an amazing time just sliding in under the wire before the omicron wave hit and meant a lot of pantos were cancelled. We had amazing feedback from the Somerset Fellowship of Drama and though there are a few covid references they are light and not crucial.

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