TheOrator.Press Theatre Review: The Brixton House Panto. Cinderella Gets A Modern Day, Magical, Multi-Cultural, And Technological Makeover. December 2023

Illustrations @Wild Suga. It’s Not Just Theatre & Musicals Themselves That Benefit From Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, But Also Associated Businesses. Everyone Wins As Work Increases.

Bravo! @BrxHouseTheatre. This Year’s Panto Looks Like It May Be Another Black British Theatre Award Contender, Following On From The Success of Last Year’s Panto. There Are No Guarantees of Course, But It Was Defintely Magical And Original, With Great Simple But Stylish And Effective Production Values.

Mentioning No Names But Suffice To Say A Member of The Hamilton Cast Was Spotted In The House On Press Night. So One Way or Another It Has A Touch of The Historical About It. Not To Mention Sometimes The Hysterical, Moving And Emotional.

At This Year’s Black British Theatre Awards.Com (October 2023) Toyin Ayedun-Alase Won The Best Supporting Female Actor In A Play Award For Her Role In Last Year’s Brixton House Theatre Panto (Alice In Wonderland 1-31 December 2022). In Addition Debbie Duru Won Best Lighting Design And @GerelFalconer Won Best Book And Lyrics For The Same Panto Production. Talk About A Triple Threat! What A Fabulous Thespian Trio!

Roll On Next Year! If It Maintains This Quality of Festive Theatre We May Have To Make The Annual @BrxHouseTheatre Panto A Festive Regular, Because It Would Be So Nice To Have A Panto One Can Rely On Each Christmas. (Frankly, Previously, Elsewhere, Again Mentioning No Names, We’ve Seen Some Rather Dull Duds That Could Potentially Put People Off Theatre For Life. But It’s Quite The Opposite In This Case.) Pantos Are Often Where Kids Cut Their Teeth In Terms of Experiences Theatrical, So These Festive Funnies Are Important, WithTheir Power To Be Impactful.

There Are Lots of Home-Grown Vegetables In This Home-Grown Eco-Friendly, Sustainability, Organic Adaptation of The Traditional Romanticised Version of The Fairytale Classic ‘Cinderella’.

In A Clever More Modern & Localized Re-Write By International Writer & Actor #Danusia Samal, With Direction By #Ola Ince, There’s An Abundance of Allotment-Style, Fresh, Healthy Produce, But No Pumpkin Carriage With Four Magical Footmen In Lush Liveries And Starchy White Wigs.

There Is No Grand Royal Ball For All The People As A Handsome Prince Publicly Declares His Desire To Marry And Commands The Attendance of All Maidens In The Principality So That He May Select From Amongst Them His Bride To Be. And There Are No Ugly Sisters Trying To Force Their Feet Into A Beautiful Lost & Found Glass Slipper So That They May Falsely Claim To Be The Elusive Cinderella. (She Originally Ran From The Royal Ball To A Magical Pumpkin Carriage Endeavouring To Return Home Before The Magic Spell of Her Fairy Godmother Broke And Her Princess Makeover Faded And Returned Her To Drudgery & Rags At Midnight). 

Instead We Have Tasty Sindi-Ella Cultivated Vegetables Eat, Which Can Be Purchased From A Community Market Space, An Inherited Grocery Shop. A Property Development Company With No Regard For Its History Nor The Local Community, Which May or May Not Eventually See The Error of Its Ways

Touching On The Issue of Anxiety, Mental Health, Well-Being And The Often Emptiness of Celebrity We Also See Two Lonely Teens Looking For Friendship. One of Them Is A Daddy’s Girl (Sindi Ella) Who Misses The Father/Daughter Relationship That They Both Enjoyed (Before Her Father’s Premature Death). And Who Now Talks To Him Via A Substitute Plant (Called ‘Delphy’) In His Abscence. Delphy of Course Cleverly Short For Delphinium.

There’s Also Thankfully Only A Solitary Annoying Step-Sister. Not At All Ugly Though, But Just Obsessed With A Social Media Influencer, Reflecting One of The Uglier Sides of The Not So Social, Social Media, Which We Call ‘Anti-Social’ Media. And of Course There’s Her Shallow Step-Mother Played By A Very @JuleneRobinson Who Doubles Up As A School Bully At One Point. She’s Not So Keen To Marry, As She Is Keen To Sell Her Deceased Husband’s Propery. And Instead of A Grand Ball There’s A Major Party Advertised On The Fictional Social Media Platform.

This Small But Tallawah Cast Delivers Without Doubt One of The Best Pantos We’ve Ever Seen. And The Multicultural And Multi-Generational Audience Loved It. The Atmosphere Was Fun, The Writing Intelligent, The Acting Committed And Energetic, The Language Hilariously Authentic And Patois-Perfect Without Being Offensive. And It All Works To Bring Great Music, Movement, Multi-Cultural References, Magic And Major Laughs To A Modern-Day Pantomine That’s Relevant And Really Keeping It Real. Pulling That Off Is Really Rather A Big Deal. Well Done To One And All!

The Music, The Dancing, The Costumes, The Set – And – Even The Portable, Non-Binary ‘Mini Robot’ Friend, Powered By ‘AI Technology‘ – (Owned By The Aforementioned Social Influencer, Who Again Is Cleverly Monikered And Called ‘Charmz’ – And Is Popular On The Equally Cleverly Monikered Fictional ‘Flip Flop’ Social Media Platform) – All Combine To Create Great Family Friendly, Funny And Engaging, Contemporary Storytelling.