Gerber), although here Dandini goes about carrying out the Prince’s commands, like inviting people to the ball, even though he hasn’t see the Prince for days. Following Rossini’s 1817 operatic version of the tale, Torr also includes the Prince’s valet Dandini (J.J. Scatter-brained as she may be, her presence gives the audience the notion that there is a power of good in the play to help combat the Villain’s evil.Īlso present is the character Buttons (Gaelan Beatty), a tradition in British Cinderella pantos, a fellow servant in love with Cinders but too tongue-tied in her presence to tell her his feelings. She heard Cinderella’s fairy godmother’s distress call and has come to help even though it takes most of the show for her wand to recharge.
Replacing Cinderella’s fairy godmother is a substitute Fairy (Erin Keaney) a ditzy and comically ineffective spirit. Intriguing as an intellectual analysis of Torr’s approach is, it is in no way necessary to be aware of it to enjoy the show. If one were to apply literary criticism to Torr’s version, one would note that having a character in a story know that he is in a story and is trying to manipulate the plot towards a different ending is is highly metafictional and post-modern. The Villain’s goal is to force the story to end his way, not the traditional way. Knowing the story that is destined to happen to Cinderella, he, out of pure spite, has banished Cinderella’s fairy godmother from the land and seems to be the only one who knows what has happened to the Prince. Torr has given the story a new Villain (Sean Wright), a magician who is so ashamed of his name he wants to keep it a secret.
And, even more unusual, there no Prince Charming. In Torr’s version, however, there is no stepmother and there is no fairy godmother. Every panto must have a villain and in a Cinderella panto the villain is usually Cinderella’s wicked stepmother. Well, Rob Torr has written a new one and it is very ingenious.
You might think that after the hundreds of years of its existence every variation on the Cinderella story would already have been written.
RUNIN BANISHED TORRENT TORRENT
The audience participation at a Torrent panto has a variety and pervasiveness that the large-scale annual panto downtown never has attained. This last feature is the heart of pantomime and is what makes it such a favourite with children and different from all other types of theatre. Writer/director/producer Rob Torr has written a very clever twist to the familiar fairy tale, assembled a top-notch cast and has the cast maintain a constant interaction with the audience. This is the third year that Torrent Productions has presented a panto at the Royal Canadian Legion at Gerrard and Coxwell and Cinderella: A Merry Magical Pantomime may be their funniest one yet. Torrent Productions, Royal Canadian Legion, 243 Coxwell Avenue, TorontoĬinderella and Prince: “You’re the one that I want”