Review: Pantomime at The Maltings in Berwick had plenty of music, dance and laughter from the audience

The high-energy, wisecracking, magically sparkly, innuendo-packed pantomime at the Berwick venue is a Christmas treat.

The stakes are high – oh yes they are! Affable King Barty (think of all the rhymes) may not warm to pizza magnate Pinkie Pinkleton, but he’s clueless as to how far she’ll go to get her foot over the castle threshold and his crown on her head.

Pinkie’s mission to thwart the course of true love in favour of her hideously gifted daughters is, of course, hampered by magic, cute talking puppets, a Princess Ball, glass slippers and a transformation scene that made the audience gasp.

Wendy Payn writes a delicious panto script and Cinderella is one of her finest. The pace holds throughout and includes the audience at every opportunity. And the audience lapped it up.

Payn also plays villainous Pinkie, a poison Barbie, whose ambition for power and pink is outdone only by her meddling and flippant cruelty – her nickname for Cinderella (Chloe Millar) is ‘Clumpy’.

Millar is everything a modern Cinderella should be: down-to-earth, calm under pressure and no pushover. She cuts a dash even in her deceased dad’s wellies – plus, total respect to Millar for executing the exhilarating opening dance ‘Footloose’ in crocs.

Pinkie’s daughters, Euan McIver (Twinkle Pinkleton) and Emma Boyd (Tinkle Pinkleton), deliver slick slapstick performances. As you’d expect, they get fabulous costumes and cracking lines.

From Twinkle’s instruction to Tinkle to ‘Roll your Rs’ (say it out loud) in an elocution lesson to Tinkle’s ‘hole in one’ golfing socks, no pun is left behind.

King Barty (John Stenhouse) exudes bemused cuddly charm, while nephew Prince Reginald (Cameron Ivor) – tag, ‘Reggie the Ledgie’ – bounces through the show like Tigger on steroids.

Ivor throws some of the finest dance moves of the show and the ‘Gummy Bears’ routine with Buttons and the chorus of gifted local youngsters (Team Pizza at this performance) had the audience clapping and laughing in equal measure.

Inevitably it’s Buttons (Ross Graham) who holds things together, crossing effortlessly from castle to pizza parlour. And Graham owns the stage, ad-libbing to the audience, fist-bumping old buddy Prince Reg and joking with Cinderella.

But it’s the magic sprinkled by Charlotte Summers’ crisp and casually clumsy Fairy Dandelion that ensures the triumph of good over evil.

Every detail in this triumphant show is thought through, keeping the auditorium permanently buzzing – from swaying flowers to madcap chase scenes. The costumes are lavish, the sets beautiful – right down to the dandelion motif framing the stage. Lighting and sound are spot-on, music and choreography are pin sharp.

If I had one criticism, it would be that the audience was so carried away by the show’s momentum, the end came as a bit of a surprise.

Cinderella is an unadulterated romp of a show with bravura performances and back-to-back music, dance and laughter.

It runs until January 3. Audio described and British Sign Language performance on Sunday, December 17 from noon.

For more information and to book tickets, go to www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/cinderella