Category: Mary Woodward Review

**** (4 stars)

“Delight’s All Ages”

The Lyceum Christmas show always presents an individual and quirky take on traditional or well-kent tales, and this year’s Cinderella is no exception.  Not an Edinburgh-based tale, for once, but one with a distinctly Scottish flavour, this production entertains and delights in equal measure.

The story is familiar – but with quirky twists.  Ella’s mother died when she was young, and she and her father have been very happy together, sharing a love of the birds that live in the forest where they live.  Her father remarries and confidently expects that Ella will come to love his new wife and her two children – nothing could be further from the truth!  When her father dies, his widow discovers that the fortune she thought she’d married is non-existent.  Ella is demoted to the life of a skivvy, and mother, son and daughter delight in mocking and humiliating Ella, who now has to sleep among the cinders in the kitchen.

A young man comes to forest to watch birds – the first time he has ever seen them in their natural setting.  He’s very excited about this, and when he meets Ella shares with her his hope to see some of the very rare birds he has in his bird book.  He’s very surprised when Ella is able to mimic their calls and summon them to her.  He invites her to a ball the following evening, and she’s delighted at the prospect of dancing, which she loves.  Of course, he’s the prince, and of course Ella doesn’t have any idea of this.

And so the story continues, with the Mother setting Ella impossible tasks and delighting in preventing her from going to the ball – but here, instead of a fairy godmother saving the day, it’s the birds who complete the impossible tasks and provide a dress and a pair of wonderfully sparkly [ruby] sneakers to complete Ella’s costume for the ball.   A sneaker is lost, the Prince is disconsolate: he sets out to find the girl whom the sneaker will fit and despite the Mother’s best efforts, Ella gets to marry the Prince and the Mother is suitably punished. 

The cast are uniformly excellent.  Olivia Hammati graduated from the Old Vic Theatre School last year and is perfect as the loving and vulnerable Ella – feisty, too, and quick-wittedly devising a scheme to get her revoltingly affected and unpleasant step-siblings helping her with her chores.  Matthew Forbes and Christina Gordon have a field day with these two nasty characters – though the Brother does reveal a kindlier side, and one does have some sympathy with the Sister as she fails to live up to the Mother’s impossible expectations.  Richard Conlon is a warm and sympathetic, if easily deluded, Father, Carly Anderson is a wonderfully sparky Scottish Queen, and Sam Stopford a suitably gangly, unconfident and painfully shy Prince.  Nicole Cooper steals the show as the impossibly arrogant, heartless monster determined to claw her way out of poverty by forcing her daughter into the Prince’s arms – even performing instant surgery when her foot won’t fit the sparkly sneaker…

Set and costume designer Francis O’Connor provides quirky and colourful contemporary costumes and has a field day with the mops, brooms and ladders which feature largely in poor Ella’s hard-working life.  A giant mirror cleverly represents the glamour and glitter of the royal court, a striking contrast to the dismal domestic scene.  There is a wonderfully riotous plate-smashing sequence in the kitchen and a joyfully abandoned dance number at the ball.  Gloriously colourful birds [excellent puppetry here] flit throughout the show, offering comfort, consolation, assistance and the hope of a return to the much brighter life Ella remembers from her very young days.  Composer and MD Jon Beales has written some catchy songs; there are some lovely dances to help the story along; and the cast throw themselves into everything with great gusto.

Cinderella is a great ensemble piece, with something to delight all ages: an excellent way to celebrate the festive season.

Cinderella: A Fairy Tale, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, runs until Saturday 3^rd January 2026 for more information and tickets go to: https://lyceum.org.uk/events/cinderella-a-fairytale

**** (4 stars)

“A wonderfully entertaining show”

Scottish Ballet’s Snow Queen showcases everything that makes the company’s productions so special and enjoyable: superb dancing to a live orchestra, a company of individuals rather than soloists with a faceless, homogenous corps, lively children’s participation and excellent storytelling.  It’s the perfect Christmas treat, and a splendid introduction to the world of ballet for anyone who doesn’t know anything about dance.

The Snow Queen lives in a far-distant ice palace with her sister, the Summer Princess.  They quarrel when the princess sees in the queen’s enchanted mirror a vision of herself embracing a young man.  She goes to find him, disguising herself as a young man, Lexi.  Her sister the queen is alone and furious: in her rage, she shatters the magic mirror.

Lexi is making her living as a pickpocket on the fringes of a busy town, using a shard of the magic mirror to protect herself.  One day she sees the young man of her vision: it’s Kai, but he’s in love with Gerda, and asks her to marry him.  Suddenly the action freezes: the Snow Queen arrives to ask Lexi to come back home.  When she refuses, the Queen blows dust from Lexi’s mirror shard into Kai’s eyes.  He becomes a frozen, heartless monster who repudiates Gerda.  A circus arrives and brings light, colour and fun into a drab urban scene: but a trick involving Kai goes wrong and he disappears, leaving Gerda alone and heartbroken.  She begs Lexi for help.

Gerda and Lexi arrive at the gypsy encampment, seeking help from Mazelda the fortune teller.  She tells Gerda that Kai is under the Snow Queen’s enchantment and he cannot be rescued.  Undaunted, Gerda sets off through the forest and, despite the best efforts of snow wolves, jackfrosts and snowflakes, reaches the ice palace.  Gerda tries unsuccessfully to remind Kai of their relationship.  The Snow Queen attacks her, and it’s only Lexi’s reappearance as the Summer Princess, ready to give up her freedom in exchange for Kai, that enables the young lovers to be reunited as Kai’s heart melts.

Overall, it was a very good performance, and much of the criticism I have is good.  In the opening village scene there’s so much going on that you can’t possibly see everything – and I really want to, because every dancer on stage is a living personality with an agenda of their own and I want to watch them all.   There’s so much going on that it’s easy to miss what Lexi’s doing – the trouble she gets into, the potential disasters narrowly averted.   When the circus irrupts into the midst of all this mayhem, things become even more wonderfully complicated – I want to watch the individual performers, the crowd’s reaction to them, the drama between Lexi, Kai and Gerda: and it’s just impossible!

What stood out for me was the performance of Benjamin Thomas’s Ringmaster – I couldn’t take my eyes off him even when Thomas Edward’s cocky little Strong Man was blithely tossing his Ballerina, Alice Kawalek into the air.  I wanted to follow the Acrobats, Rishan Benjamin and Elizabeth Williams – their contortions on the stage of the tiny theatre looked fascinating – and the Clowns (James Garrington and Andrea Azzari) were also demanding attention which I couldn’t always give them.   Later on, in the gypsy encampment it was Benjamin Thomas who drew my eye again, though Grace Horler’s Mazelda was another strikingly powerful dancer.   

And of course there’s the amazing violinist Gill Risi, strolling through the whirling gypsy dancers (all of whom are superbly athletic and eye-catching) who astounds with her fiery, dramatic playing.  No wonder her curtain call – and that of the whole Scottish Ballet orchestra under Martin Yates – received some of the loudest applause of the night.

It was, sadly, the principal characters whom I found slightly underwhelming.  It’s hard for Kai (Bruno Micchiardi) once he gets the glass fragments in his eye.  Up till then he’s been the charming, hopeful suitor who is delighted to have his proposal to Gerda accepted: after that he becomes a bit of a sulky boy puppet, obeying the demands of the Snow Queen and basically being a bit of a git.  Kayla-Maree Tarantolo’s Gerda danced beautifully, but didn’t really get much opportunity to display her inner fire, even when trying to get her engagement ring back from Lexi.  Lexi herself (Melissa Polson) was a brilliant dancer, but had to spend much of her time being disappointed: I felt really sorry for her when she made the sacrifice of returning to her sister’s palace, a moment which I felt passed rather too quickly.

Jessica Fyfe’s Snow Queen was also a superb dancer but she really didn’t make me shiver with fear nor even want to boo her furiously.  She goes around bullying everyone, and isn’t even particularly pleased to get her sister back: I don’t envy the two of them trying to get along in their ice palace…

This aside, Snow Queen is a wonderfully entertaining show and, as I’ve said, a superb introduction to ballet.  My companion had never been to the ballet before, and loved it, as did the whole of the Festival Theatre audience.   The show is a lovely way to enjoy the magic of the festive season, and I’m really glad to have seen it again – not least to see some of the Mary Queen of Scots dancers in wildly different roles!  Meanwhile, I’m looking forward enormously to seeing Scottish Ballet’s fabulously entertaining gender-swapping Cinderella next Christmas, together with all the other delights waiting for me in 2026.

Scottish Ballet presents The Snow Queen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh runs until Sunday 7^th December for more information and tickets go to: https://www.capitaltheatres.com/shows/scottish-ballet-the-snow-queen/

The production will tour to Glasgow Theatre Royal, Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre and Inverness Eden Court Theatre.