Choreography by Christopher Hampson CBE

Music by Sergei Prokofiev

Conducted by Wolfgang Heinz

Tickets from£15.00

The enduring power of Cinderella, often seen as the definitive European fairytale, certainly retains a presence as it is the most performed winter show this year in Scotland across Pantomime, Comedy, and now, Ballet. 

The story of a young individual crippled by the heel of privilege pressing down on them by their superiors is a tale which has never lost flavour. No wonder why. Now, Scottish Ballet seeks to bring their incarnation of the ball that captivates an entire kingdom to new audiences with Cinders! But just who is attending to this particular festivity? Well, you won’t know until you take your seat.

Bringing back their critically acclaimed Cinderella with a flourish that extends beyond a mere revival. Before each performance, the eager crowds are unaware of who precisely will take the glass slippers for a spin – as the role alternates between principals, with this evening allowing Bruno Micchiardi to bring the role of Cinders to contemporary light.

With the binary stereotypes and expectations still lingering across ballet and storytelling, Scottish Ballet’s artistic director and Cinders! Choreographer Christopher Hampson CBE has time and again poked and prodded the form to see what nuances can be shaped while maintaining quality. Demonstrating the companies’ ability, not only in following traditions but in forging new ones, Hampson constructs the tale with the familiar elements audiences have grown with but encourages new shapes of the tale for those who have too long been unable to wear the glass slipper.

The decisions surrounding Cinder’s casting lead to a wonderful nuance in which no grand-reveals of showboating exist. Any ‘novelty’ in the casting evaporates, and the quality in performance and spinning a tale takes over almost instantaneously – irrespective of which Cinders audiences encounter on their performance date. It all begins, once upon a time, with a young dancer, initially played with gusto by a charming Charles Waller, in the warm embrace of their loving parents performed by Roseanna Leney and Rimbaud Patron, finds their life turned around after a fire claims the family milliners and the lives of their parents.

The child is reluctantly taken in by the Thorne family, who take over the milliners from the ashes which give the child their name: Cinders. Scottish Ballet’s version of the wicked stepmother, Mrs Thorne (Grace Paulley) conveys the gnarled cruelty of the fable character but is more businesswoman than a surrogate parent. And in tradition, the ballet subverts the ugly sister trope for a trio of brattish brooding siblings: Tarquin (Aaron Venegas), Morag (Grace Horler), and Flossie (Claire Souet) as the more sympathetic, relatable of the three who recognises Cinders struggles, though never acts upon it.

For those wondering about the fairytale dressings of it all, Cinders! takes a tangent from the pages of storybooks and comes over as much closer to a high-class fantastical interpretation. Magic is here in aplomb, but within the footwork and staging rather than narrative, without a pumpkin or fairy-godmother in sight. Elin Steele’s design work is staggeringly clean and beautiful from the milliner shop to the castle gardens and grounds, there’s a bronzed vignette to the entire show, almost frozen in a gorgeous period time-frame with soft woods and colours which enable the costume work to stand out and achieve the necessary fairytale aesthetic without pushing too hard into the obscene or pantomime. Cinders! relies on the audiences being familiar with the Cinderella story, and even though the majority are, there’s still a little too light a dusting of storytelling from the more traditional avenue.

Emotional storytelling however is Cinders! tour-de-force. There isn’t a moment where the audience doesn’t forge a connection with Micchiardi’s expressive and articulate movements. From the stroke of midnight seen just before the first act’s closing, the second opens with a more dreamscape presence that enables Micchiardi to toy with the more regal and romanticism of movement with Hampson’s choreography. Their duet with Princess Louise, played with striking strength and poise from Jessica Fyfe, is the closest Cinders! treads to its predecessor, as the exuding regalness of their take on the infamous Cinderella waltz.

Tarquin (the name says it all) and the conceited, if clumsy, Morag and Flossie are all decked in their jarringly garish costume. As the trio instil a touch of the panto season on the good folks of the Royal, with boos and hisses to offer plenty of opportunities to make your thoughts for the villains known and spur on our cheer and glee as the hero emerges content with their happily ever after. The skill in making looks these splats, falls and garish displays look so naturally primed and polished while maintaining the momentum and poise is quite remarkable – Horler a master of this – and elevates comedy to the same standard-bearing of talent as the more dramatic and intensive moments of Cinders!

Outwith the movement, Prokofiev’s lavishly striking score is weaved through the show under Wolfgang Heinz’s conduction of the Scottish Ballet Orchestra. Unobtrusive, the composition makes a stern impact from the sidelines, never robbing the movement of the light it deserves, merely amplifying the enchantment of it all. Perhaps the most intelligent use of Prokofiev’s score is the subversion of its moments designed for the prince, here being utilised for Fyfe’s journey as the Princess. And just how tightly Hampson and the Scottish Ballet troupe tie it all together so cleanly.

Tidy and gentile, with a core of skill, Cinders! structure is not the most ambitious for Scottish Ballet, but the quality is never compromised as it seeks ambition in newer, arguably more important avenues. Hampson weaves their own Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo magic, manifesting in Cinders! a show where anyone can wear the glass slipper: a fairytale where the binary is set aside, and the magic of movement is placed centre-stage in a production which pitches emotional storytelling above traditions.

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