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written and directed by Rob Torr

Torrent Productions, The Hall, Emmanuel United Church, Odessa

December 20-24, 2024

Cinderella: “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”

If you want to see the best panto this side of the Atlantic, head to Odessa, Ontario, to see Torrent Productions’ Cinderella. Readers of Stage Door will know that from 2016 to 2019 Torrent produced pantomimes that were truer to British tradition than any currently seen in Southern Ontario. Unlike the famed large scale pantos of Ross Petty, the small scale pantos of Torrent featured vastly more audience participation which is what distinguishes the British pantomime from other forms of theatre. The audience feels it is contributing as much to the show as those on stage. Rob Torr and Stephanie Graham, the team behind Torrent Productions bought a farm near Odessa, a small town just 22 km from Kingston, during the pandemic. This year they have resurrected their style of panto in Odessa, and it is every bit as wonderful as were their pantos in Toronto.

Cinderella: A Merry Magical Pantomime is basically a remount of Torrent’s panto of the same name from 2018. It is performed on a purpose-built stage in The Hall of Emmanuel United Church, a gymnasium-sized space much larger than the Royal Canadian Legion at Coxwell and Gerrard where Torrent staged its previous pantos.

Rob Torr, writer and director of the show, has an unusual take on the familiar fairy tale. His Cinderella has no wicked step-mother, no fairy godmother and, strangely enough, no Prince Charming. Instead, Torr gives us an amnesiac young man who has forgotten his name and decides to name himself after a feature of the smart uniform he is wearing, i.e. “Buttons”.

Buttons becomes the valet for Baron Hardup and his two nasty daughters Anita and Ivannta, who make their step-sister Cinderella wait on them like a servant. In the absence of a Prince, we have Dandini, the Prince’s valet, who carries out all the Prince’s instructions for the Ball even though Dandini hasn’t seen the Prince for a long time.

We hear that Cinderella’s Fairy-Godmother is busy and so has sent a newbie Fairy to do her work for her. This Fairy’s wand is not fully charged and she has to use note cards to tell her what steps to take.

Normally, the wicked step-mother would be the show’s villain, but here Torr introduces a character simply named The Villain, whose sole goal is to prevent the story from reaching a happy ending. To have a character in a play aware that he is in a play and is trying to change its ending is an aspect of metatheatre that will tickle adults’ intellect and that children will simply enjoy.

Having seen the opening of Canadian Stage’s revival of the Ross Petty-style panto with The Wizard of Oz just a week ago, the contrast between that, the largest-scale panto in Ontario, and Torrent’s Cinderella could hardly have been greater. Petty’s pantos had come to include less and less audience participation until it involved only booing the villain. In the latest panto writer Matt Murray began having characters ask the audience for advice with a yes or no answer expected. That is a step forward, but the Torrent pantos have always had a superabundance of audience participation, and that is what makes them such unparalleled entertainment. The Torrent audience, particularly the children, are made to feel like co-creators of the show.

Torr has assembled a fine cast all of whom know how to establish an immediate rapport with the audience and how to play their characters with a lovely sense of gentle self-parody. For followers of Torrent’s previous productions, one special pleasure is to see actors from its Toronto shows appear in Odessa. One of these is Greg Campbell, who plays Baron Hardup, the same role he played in 2018. He has excellent comic timing and is especially funny in the “He’s right behind you” scene where Baron Hardup has such blinkered vision he can’t see an obvious ghost in his peripheral vision.

The other returnee is Stuart Dowling as Ivannta, also the role he played in 2018. Dowling and newcomer Danel Krolik as Anita are perfectly hilarious, especially in their insistence, despite a significant difference in height, that they are identical twins. Their signature song, Irving Berlin’s “Sisters” from White Christmas (1954) is a hoot. But the routine that will you breathless with laughter is the duo’s aesthetic dance with a large white balloon to the “Dance of the Hours” from Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda (1876). People will know this music best from its use in Disney’s Fantasia (1940) which featured dancing hippos and seems to have inspired Stephanie Graham’s delectable choreography.

Aly MacFarlane presents just the right amounts of innocence and spunk that makes a great Cinderella. On the one hand, she can sing a song with fuzzy little forest animals. On the other, she can belt out the joyous longing of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” (1987).

As Buttons, who secretly loves Cinderella but can’t bring himself to tell her, Jason Lemmon is elegant in his dancing, funny in showing Button’s embarrassment and excellent in singing classic songs like George Gershwin’s "Things Are Looking Up” and Charles Strouse’s “Put On A Happy Face”. Lemmon and MacFarlane really channel the sound of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John when they sing “You’re The One That I Want”.

Ryan Burda is a fine panto Villain, one whose power only seems to grow the more he is booed. He knows how snarl out his insults to raise the booing to a more fevered pitch. Burda has the most resonant speaking and singing voice of the cast and shows this off to great effect in his main song, the Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” (1982).

Michelle Nash is very funny as the ditsy Fairy who is good at heart. Katy Perry’s “Firework” (2010) may be an odd choice for the character and her situation, but it does give Nash a chance to show off her voice.

Brian Ross is a lot of fun as Dandini. He exemplifies another classic panto feature, the signature entrance gesture. Every time Dandini enters, Ross slaps his knee, stamps his foot and gazes out at the audience before he speaks. Ross conveys such an upbeat nature that he makes this gesture seem fresh every time. Ross’s forte is dancing and Stephanie Graham has choreographed a fantastic number for him to P!nk’s “Get The Party Started” (2001) including breaking and acrobatics which Ross executes with panache.

On the night I attended there were people in the audience from the Kingston area who had travelled to Toronto to see Torrent’s pantos. The Torrent pantos give you such a lift this is not a strange thing to do. Now that Torrent is in the Kingston area, let’s hope that anyone who wants to experience what real pantos are like will travel to Odessa. The Torrent show is filled with so much energy, so much laughter and so much good will it feels like a communal celebration. I can’t wait to see their next show.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Aly MacFarlane as Cinderella; Michelle Nash as Fairy, Daniel Krolik as Anita, Stuart Dowling as Ivantta, Aly MacFarlane as Cinderella, Jason Lemmon as Buttons, Greg Campbell as Baron Hardup, Brian Ross as Dandini and Ryan Burda as The Villain;  Ryan Burda as The Villain. © 2024 Randy deKleine-Stimpson.

For tickets visit: torrentproductions.com.