Review: Cinderella at the Tobacco Factory Theatre Bristol
If there is one show this Christmas guaranteed to get the audience talking afterwards, it’s Cinderella at the Tobacco Factory Theatre.
The Factory has a solid history of producing arguably the best Bristol show during the Christmas season each year. Their approach is to take a well known strong story, spin their magic and bring it to life with neither sequins nor pantomime dame.
Actually, Cinderella has been one of the few shows where vigorous boos and hisses could be heard reverberating across the Southville area. This kind of pantomime interaction from the audience is very rare and a testament to the wonderfully evil and psychotic Step Mother played by Craig Edwards.
Created by Travelling Light Theatre Company, Sally Cookson doesn’t let the audience down with this sometimes highly stylised yet wonderfully twisted fairy tale. She notes in the programme how she has taken inspiration from the Brothers Grimm’s Aschenputtel and Tuan Ch’eng-Shin’s Yeh-Hsien, the German and Chinese variations on the Cinderella story.
Now this is an important note, because over the years, the animated saccharine Disney version has been the benchmark for Cinderella pantomimes, shows and storybooks. But in reality, Fairy Tales are so much darker than this, even quite adult.
Think the Pied Piper stealing the children. The wolf being boiled alive at the end of the Three Little Pigs. Or even the Prince being blinded by thorns in Rapunzel. Even these stories have been watered down from the true horror of the original folk and fairy tales collected by the brothers.
This version weaves its magic through birds. When Ella’s father dies, the bird loving teen suddenly finds herself at the mercy of her dreadful Step Mother and two step siblings. Her only outlet is the forest of birds and the spirit of her father. Ultimately this is a coming of age story where love and good triumphs over a series of tragic and bad events running through Ella’s life.
Step Brother (though simply fabulous as a lady in act two) – Saikat Ahamed, and Step Sister (simply fabulous as an attempt to be a lady in act two) – Lucy Tuck, start off like Midwich Cuckoos. But as the layers unpeel, it’s impossible not to feel sorry for them as they, like Ella are clearly victims of parental abuse themselves.
It is in the forest Ella meets the prince. Thomas Eccleshare is highly loveable as the asthmatic geeky Prince. His creation of the role has almost leapt off of the pages of a great Lez Brotherston design.
Lisa Kerr is wonderful as the feisty Ella, bringing a much needed freshness, intelligence and strength to a character we can finally sympathise with.
The show is recommended for families with children aged six years and above. But the end doesn’t pull any punches, fully embracing the dark nature of the fairy tale.
Suddenly we are immersed in a scene similar in vein to the darker side of Roald Dahl meets Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds, meets Stephen King’s Misery. In fact, just when we think it’s all over, there is still a vague worry the Step Mother will make a final appearance glinting manically like Glenn Close at the end of Fatal Attraction, with a few birds boiling in a pan.
At times the show is beautiful. It’s always magical and the overall production simply wonderful.
This show will make you gasp in horror, boo at the Step Mother and make you laugh until your face aches.
You will never see a Christmas show this fantastic ever again.
Booking information: http://tobaccofactorytheatre.com/shows/detail/cinderella_a_fairytale/