As the finishing touches were made to the Northcott, reopening after a £2.1m refurbishment, a new character was added to this year's panto: the wicked witch, played by Arts Council England. The council, which contributed £100,000 to the redevelopment, chose this week to announce the withdrawal of funding for the venue from 2009. Oh yes they have.
Not that such matters impinge upon the production's young audience as they lap up this zesty retelling of Cinderella. The central romance is as silly as ever, and in Ben Crocker's version it is scooted over as quickly as possible with a few brief scenes and drippy love songs, making time for the real attraction: the Ugly Sisters. They are played by Noel White and Steve Bennett as Trinny and Susannah, dressed in some fantastically unbecoming outfits and belting out the panto's most audience-pleasing numbers, borrowed from Mika, Scissor Sisters and S Club 7. This duo is what gives the production its energy, and the lampooning is funny without being nasty. It is also good to see cosmetic surgery and size zero aspirations ridiculed in front of an impressionable audience.
This is a pantomime for younger children, with its emphasis on singalongs and classic bits of business: "It's behind you", custard pies on faces. Sets are largely painted rather than realised, and the use of bright, sweetie-style colours gives a sense of fun rather than dramatic exploration.
But the show bounds along, held together largely by Gordon Cooper as Buttons, who works the audience charmingly. By the end, the young crowd, like Cinderella, have had a ball.
· Until January 19. Box office: 01392 493493.
