“Cinderella, like you’ve never seen before.”
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That was how Kimbarra Lodge staff member, Mandy Wilson introduced the pantomime performed by staff and residents on Wednesday November 28.
The classic Cinderella story was turned on its heels and left the audience in stitches.
A traditional British pantomime is a theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story, usually produced around Christmas.
It’s amazing how much fun adults can have with dress up clothes and wigs from the op shop.
This group of creative, dynamic and down right silly people put on quite the performance for several of their family members, fellow residents and staff.
The cast consisted of staff members, Mandy Wilson who played the narrator and Sharon Latimore as the prince; along with residents, Tom Donoghue and Johana Heyink as the ugly twin step sisters, Jean Parker as the evil stepmother, Greg Barrett as Cinderalla, Gwen Moore as the fairy godmother, Neville Jone as the prince’s valet and Styntje Gruisinga as Buttons.
Mandy started of the performance letting the audience know the rules of a panto, meaning the expectation of audience participation.
She had signs to tell them when to cheer, gasp and boo.
It was a new take on an old tale, with a bit of prompting, ad-libbing and plenty of laughter.
All the actors worked well together, making sure everyone made it onto stage and said their lines.
The step-sisters in this version where twins, which made for some interesting banter when they told the audience they were so similar they could read each other’s minds.
It turned out they weren’t even close.
Tom caused quite a stir with his lovely dress, rosy checks and bright lipstick.
It seems Cinderella could have avoided the whole mess if she had just taken the fairy godmother’s advice to become a lap dancer instead of a domestic engineer.
Who would have known Gloucester has so much talent at Kimbarra Lodge - can’t wait to see what they put together next year.