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Cinderella: A Fairytale

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh 

Five stars 

 

The birds are circling in this new take on one of the greatest children’s stories ever told, but nicely. As the flock of green and yellow plumaged puppets swoop, soar and provide comfort several times over to little orphan Ella, they offer a form of liberation as well to their already free-spirited charge, even as she is under the thumb of her gleefully wicked stepmother and her pair of brattish enfants terrible stepsiblings.

 

This makes for a delightfully colourful Cinderella in Sally Cookson and Adam Peck’s version of the story, written with their original production’s company when it was first seen in Bristol back in 2011. Jemima Levick’s new look at it for the Lyceum’s Christmas show picks up the baton and invests it with a heart, soul and visual wonder that brings it to joyful life. At the heart of this is a fusion of handsomely realised sound and vision bolstered by a set of deliciously grotesque performances from Levick’s nine-strong cast.

 

Central to this is Olivia Hemmati, who invests Ella with a confidence that conquers all. This includes Nicole Cooper’s Cruella-like stepmother, a vindictive vision vamping it up in an electric green suit and a Mondrian scarf. Her awful offspring are played by Christina Gordon and Matthew Forbes with malevolent glee. Once they get to the ball, Carly Anderson’s retro vintage Queen holds court in choreographer Emily Jane Boyle’s magnificent ensemble routine that channels the spirit of Bob Fosse and Fellini circa Sweet Charity. This is heightened by Jon Beales’ score, which looks to some of Ennio Morricone’s more groovy 1960s chorales by way of a Latin take on Christmas favourites.

 

With Simon Auton’s puppet birds taking flight under Forbes’ direction on Francis O’ Connor’s magical looking set of ladders, brushes, mops and perches of all sizes, it resembles some airborne Busby Berkley routine. As Sam Stopford’s Prince tries to find the girl in the sparkly scarlet Converse All Stars who ran out on him, his quest leads to the stepmother taking the sort of drastic action worthy of an Edward Gorey vignette. 

 

While all this makes for moments of wild largesse, beyond all that jazz, Levick’s production is shot through with enough magic to remain kid friendly throughout. As love finds a way, by the end, the birds aren’t the only ones who are singing in a fabulously realised confection that has just the right balance of light and shade to keep things flying to the end.


The Herald, December 1st, 2025

 

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