Review: CINDERELLA, The Art Department, Paisley

Paisley's annual pantomime traditionally takes place at the Paisley Arts Centre but as their usual home is under refurbishment, their 2022 offering Cinderella is housed on the top floor of a shopping centre. It's a slightly odd experience at first but the set-up is brilliant and the foyer has been transformed into a forest play area just outside of the theatre space.

Cinderella (Nina Gray) is kept locked in a basement doing chores for her stepmother who runs a wildly unsuccessful clothing business with her two daughters Tracy and Stacy. Written by Andy McGregor, Cinderella contains pretty much everything you'd want from a panto. There are boos, cheers, audience participation and general chaos.

I'm not sure if is deliberate but the roles of Tracy (Chris Alexander) and Stacy (Alan Orr) as Cinderella's stepsisters aren't explicitly stated by the traditional panto 'ugly sisters' title in the programme. Their treatment of their stepsister isn't kind by any means but the bullying seems a little less intense than in other productions I've seen which is quite refreshing. There's also a little plot twist that I thought was excellent and went down really well with the audience.

Dani Heron takes on the role of Madame Lacy (aka the stepmother) but it's a little hard to root against someone quite so fabulous. Dylan Wood plays Bertie, an employee of Madame Lacy who is not quite so secretly in love with Cinderella. Wood is a natural with audience interaction and while the dame characters pull the biggest laughs from the little ones, it is Bertie that brings real heart to the performance.

The only flaw with this production is that it does run a little long. There's a large children's cast and while their musical numbers are fun, it pads the whole thing out too much. Otherwise, Cinderella makes for an ideal festive outing.

Photo credit: Tiu Makkonen

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