cinderella - my first pantomime

There is one English tradition I wished I had experienced as a small child - the pantomime...and it took me quite a few years of living here before I enjoyed the spectacle. I have always loved the very Cotswold village of Chipping Norton. I was invited as a last week replacement to see Cinderella in the small but superbly restored Chipping Norton Theatre. It was great to see that at least half of the Friday afternoon matinee audience were young families. Eager and enthusiastic children waiting to be entertained and engaged in the fantasy. But I also noted that a lot of adults also enjoyed the traditions of hissing, echoing, copying and singing along...the distributed sweets were an expected bonus and it was great to have some spontaneous chatter between the cast and certain verbal children. I was so impressed with the balance between the professional actors in great costumes and local teams of enthusiastic children called pippins. It was also fun to see the familiar fairytale produced in Venice during Carnevale. With superb masks and the usual cross dressing and twists of the plot, it was a truly engaging and entertaining tale, with a superbly happy ending!