Cinderella at the Nottingham Playhouse is an upbeat way to say goodbye to 2020
The bit in Cinderella that’s almost always included and never fails to hit home comes when the Ugly Sisters force Cinders to rip up her invitation to the Prince’s ball. It’s the archetypal instance of hopes being cruelly dashed. Between them, Covid-19 and the tier system have reproduced that moment on an epic scale for the nation’s pantos.
Resilient to the last, though, many theatres have magicked up digital solutions. Despite the financially disastrous nightmare before Christmas, there are some 80 online versions available.
This means cultural historians will have a field day, granted a time capsule of (seldom recorded) panto performance and able to see the creative responses to the pandemic. In the short term, there’s a superabundance of choice for those wanting to eke out the festive period, support beleaguered venues and get a bit of their customary panto fix.
If it’s something family-friendly (not too much crass innuendo), rooted in local character, traditional yet topical you’re after, the Nottingham Playhouse ranks as a perfect choice. With the city propelled into Tier 3 in late October, ahead of the second lockdown, the vow of its chief executive Stephanie Sirr to press ahead with a Christmas offering was a moving affirmation of faith in the need for the show to go on. “We’re saying: Don’t despair!”
That’s the take-home message now for those streaming artistic director Adam Penford’s wittily scripted, smartly directed and socially distanced extravaganza. After that invite-shredding bout, Tim Frater’s Buttons and Gabrielle Brooks’s equally charismatic Cinders sing Always Look on the Bright Side, perky and pertinent – and part of a neatly judged array of pop and musical treats (The Greatest Showman kicks proceedings off ). Even though the seven-strong cast are only playing to 40 members of staff, they’re all displaying such exuberance they could be prancing in front of thousands.
The National’s captured in-the-round performance of Dick Whittington had a fuller attendance, but felt sparser and bleaker to look at. The recording here (a tidy 90 minutes) is attentive without being intrusively busy: ample wide shots of the proscenium stage, allowing you to savour the scale and sparkle of Morgan Brind’s sets, with judicious close-ups of the Ugly Sisters (panto dame veteran John Elkington’s Kourtney and Tom Hopcroft’s Kylie) in their frightful attire and preening attitudes.
There’s a section about 40 minutes in when the pair keep batting gags about (“I am fastidious about my beauty regime”, “Yes, fast and hideous”) that I could happily watch on repeat for hours (one of the plusses of the on-demand genre). There are inevitable Covid references (David Albury’s Prince lists his symptoms of social awkwardness: “And recently I’ve lost my sense of taste and smell”). But it’s the aura of near-normality that impresses most, right down to the two kids invited on stage near the end for irreverent chat and irrepressible giggling. With huge luck, performances might happen for real in the New Year. In the meantime, what a defiantly upbeat way to say goodbye to this wretched old one.
Until Jan 16. Tickets: nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk (in-person performance run extended to Jan 23 in case of Tier 3 lifting). Comprehensive list of UK’s online pantos at britishtheatreguide.info