Anna Burnside reviews ‘a masterclass in how to keep Christmas classy.’
Creating a Christmas show that is not a panto is a precarious balancing act. Too much campy slapstick and you might as well just invoke the ghost of Stanley Baxter. Play it too straight and it loses the sparkly magic that the season demands.
This Cinderella gets it just right. Director Jemima Levick starts strong by choosing Sally Cookson and Adam Peck’s script, written for Bristol’s Tobacco Factory in 2011 and gently updated for Edinburgh in 2025.
Her real masterstroke is casting excellent actors. Nicole Cooper, one of Scotland’s outstanding talents, is a discretely evil stepmother. Venal, horrible to her own vile children, beastly to Cinders, she is as good at black comedy as she is at Shakespeare.
A brilliantly choreographed scene with a chopper and some fake toes is slightly too believable for the smallest members of the audience.
Sam Stopford, like Cooper a Bard in the Botanics regular, is an adorable prince. He’s sweet, vulnerable and proud of the extraordinary flamingo-themed safari suit he’s designed to wear to his big fancy ball.
Beside these two tentpole talents, the rest of the cast sing. One of the writers’ masterstrokes is to change the ugly sisters into two weird, gullible, badly parented siblings. Matthew Forbes and Christina Gordon wring the most out of every knock-kneed moment.
Olivia Hemmati is a delicious Ella, part sulky teenager, part ambassador for the RSPB. She and Stopford’s chemistry is believable and unforced.
Then there is the puppetry, supervised by Forbes, bringing a second cast of birds to life throughout the show. They are colourful and characterful without flying anywhere close to Disney whimsy.
Add these elements together, and you have a masterclass in how to keep Christmas classy.
Cinderella: A Fairytale performs at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh until January 3, 2026. For further information and ticket details, go to their website.
Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic.
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