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A lively show with fun music and refreshing local representation, but struggles to define itself and is overly dark for a festive performanceSummary
Rating
Good
It’s Christmas in Brixton and row after row of junior school children have arrived to see Cinderella. There’s excitement in the air as we’re all given festive headgear or seasonal specs to wear. A Caribbean vibe in the music joyfully delivers the sound of Brixton, with the location also flagged in the set. This is a local show for local people, and there’s anticipation of fun to come.
But what kind of show is it, and who for? Although it delivers on dynamic dancing and super singing it’s really unclear if it’s a panto, as Cinderella so often is, a family show, a children’s show or just a musical entertainment. It’s got a strong teenage angst content and is heavy on the theme of bereavement, which makes it somewhat dark for Christmastime, and there are only a few of the traditional ‘joining in’ elements you might expect at this time of year.
Teenage Sindi (Yanexi Enriquez) helps run Ella’s greengrocers, a shop that belonged to her mum and dad, but since their deaths has passed into the hands of stepmother Steph (Julene Robinson) and annoying stepsister and would-be influencer Tia (Jesse Bateson). Neither are ugly step-relatives because they dress only in the finest designer wear. Sindi is happy in her dungarees, perfect for gardening, when she talks to her plant, Delphy (Ray Emmett Brown), who reminds her of her dad. The shop and locality, however, are in danger of gentrification from tech company Flip Flop, run by influencer Charms (Alex Thomas-Smith) (a cute and perhaps misunderstood destructive property developer), which plans to clear the area and replace their home with a mega-mall. Charms’ only friend is an AI lightbox that doesn’t add a great deal to the story.
Director Ola Ince moves the action on at a decent pace, making good use of a flexible set (Amelia Jane Hankin) and auditorium space to keep things interesting. Anna Watson‘s colourful lighting design works hard to cheer things up, wowing the young audience in some moments, particularly where it emphasises magic or the transformation of a plant into Sindi’s Flowery Godfather (although it is still decidedly weird to have a reincarnation in a Christmas production!).
The show is not short of upbeat tunes that get the audience clapping along, and there are some cracking dance moves from Thomas-Smith in particular, which I would happily have seen more of, but the whole feels a little bleak and the heavy plot line would benefit from more light relief. There’s a full on girl fight that had the kids shrieking, but very few laugh-along moments, although some delightful twinkly flourishes of magic were welcomed. The influencer references and teen angst didn’t really match these youngsters today. They mostly enjoyed the audience interaction, but even that all comes in a big chunk at the start of Act Two. I’m still not clear why we were all wearing the aforementioned festive headgear and specs. I’d imagined they’d be referenced in the party scene, but if so I missed it.
This Cinderella is definitely at its best when the music and dancing from an energetic cast is allowed to shine, but it is a show that struggles to know what it wants to be. It’s barely a nod at the Cinderella story, certainly not a panto, and is halfway to a musical. Nevertheless, its intentions are good, encouraging caring relationships, bolstering themes of community, family and sustainability, and it is undoubtedly refreshing to hear great local voices and music represented. The kids in the audience definitely enjoyed clapping along, bouncing to the beats and seeing some sparkle, and that is all good festive fun worth going for.
Written by: Danusia Samal
Directed by: Ola Ince
Composed by: Duramaney Kamara
Set Design by: Amelia Jane Hankin
Sound Design by: Elena Peña
Lighting Design by: Anna Watson
Movement Direction and Choreography by: Ricardo Da Silva
Fight Direction by: Rebecca Wilson
