Amongst all the giggles in Largs Players' top notch production of Cinderella, there were some home truths, writes Calum Corral. As the slipper size of Prince Charming's fair maiden was being checked, one of the ugly sisters turned to the audience and found a glaring plot hole in the famous children's fairytale - of course, there can't be anybody else in the world with the same shoe size - she teased with the audience. However, the show itself, wittily written by Kevin Jannetts, was brimming with clever digs, ad-libs, brilliant tunes, and some fantastic special effects, in fact the opening scene began with a bang. And all the cast were on top form, particularly 'out-of-tune' Buttons star Andy Lambert, who jokingly despaired how he was going to get out of one tricky predicament early in the play, and asked for the audience for help. When one suggested that he sing a song, given his earlier hysterical screeched efforts, he turned round and said: "Are you joking?!"
However, completely in-tune and singing a number of modern hits and traditional jingles was Karen Wilkin as the hard-working Elle (Cinderella). Karen's performance is always a joy to watch, and seems to put her heart and soul into every performance, with her strong vocals really resonating around the old Barrfields theatre. A Players stalwart in Willie Mullen played the narrator who cleverly regenerated into the Fairy Godfather, and got the oppor-chancity to deliver some great lines.
Madame De'Ath - played by Pat Nicol - was suitably gruesome - taking on the role of panto baddie, aided and abetted by the two ugly sisters. It was hard to believe it was Pat Nicol's first time as the villainess of the piece - she was absolutely wicked!
And Calum McVittie, incredibly in his 16th year at panto, was honoured with the chance of taking on one of the ugly sisters duties, as was Matt Carnegie, and both had a whale of a time getting up to all sorts of hi-jinks in trying to destroy Elle's chances of re-meeting Prince Nigel of Noddleburn. Indeed, there was no escaping a 'winch' with the sisters,Sadie and Senga, as they descended on to the audience, looking for some handsome men, with 'Phantom' Ben Gilmartin, falling victim on Saturday night - even 'News' photographer Charles Gilmour was targeted too - nobody was safe!
During one inopportune fit of giggles, Sadie even had to go off stage momentarily to speak to 'the magic bird' (Rosemary Willis) to help them remember exactly where they were in the script! It was magical madness, as even the cast were seemingly in hysterics at time, and as the youngsters lapped it up, the adults were creasing themselves with laughter too - even during one hair-raising incident near the end of the production when Sadie lost her wig! Prince Nigel of Noddleburn was played with gusto by a welcome new face in Claire McMillan, and Jordin Revel showed he was equally at home in panto as he was on the Comedy Theatre circuit earlier this year, as Dandini. Was it happy ever after for the Prince? It certainly was for the Barrfields audience after another Largs Players tour de force. The whole show, directed by David Edwards, and choreographed by Diane McMullen, was an ambitious and outstanding two and a half hour epic, with a very large ensemble, including the people of Largsonia, and the excellent cast made the show truly unmissable. And if you did miss it, you can always ask the magic bird what happened!
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