Pantomime review: Cinderella at The Helix

The Helix, Dublin

***

Pantomime and pop culture coalesce in Theatreworx's Cinderella, whose minor characters – inspired by celebrities – are as memorable as the fairy-tale favourites.

As Consumpta and Concepta Carcrashian, Eoin Cannon and Aidan Mannion are clad in fluorescent frills that enhance their full figures (one was even Kim Kardashian's bottom double in a magazine spread). As the Ugly Sisters they strut their stuff for "selfies" and terrorise Merryville in their Minger-mobile. Karl Harpur and Claire Tighe's script gives them the best lines.

Their mother, played by Mary Murray in dominatrix gear, is far more wicked, yes, but she is also less entertaining: it is the balance of meanness and stupidity that makes them such brilliant villains.

By comparison, the eponymous heroine (a vocally underpowered Megan Cassidy) and her Prince Charming (Chris Currid) seem insipid. Luckily, their sidekicks, Buttons (Colin Hughes) and Dandini (Adam Lynch), bring extra life to these more traditional scenes.

It is inevitable, too, that references and songs from Frozen should abound, and the audience happily join in with the chorus of Let it Go, belting out the lyrics as brazenly as they participate in the more traditional pantomime rituals of audience engagement, which is surely the only endorsement that Theatreworx needs. Ends Jan 11