We all know the story of Cinderella right? - well, we do now (Oh yes we do), but the story is much older than people think and has gone through many transformations before it ended up with the version that we know and love today. And of course it was this version that NWTAC Company skilfully retold this afternoon.
Based in Moston, North Manchester, North West Theatre Arts Company offers training to children, young people and even adults and offers professional work with school performances for those wishing to take their training a little further. Their own purpose built theatre inside an industrial unit is their home base and where all their in-house shows are performed.
With traditional cardboard cut-out colourful sets, modern references, upbeat contemporary music, colourful and outrageous costumes, and a few nicely-placed adult jokes thrown in for god measure, this was your traditional Christmas panto to a tee!
It is always very heartwarming to see both staff and pupils share the same stage, and what better medium can there be than a panto for an all-encompassing theatrical treat? Young, old, seasoned, student, professional, amateur, all coming together to learn and feed from each other giving joy and laughter to their audiences. This was a wholly ensemble production, and so it would be wrong of me to try and pick out stand-out performances; everyone played their part from the young girl dancers to the ugly sisters to Cinderella and Buttons themselves.
If anything, then I would say that this afternoon it took too long for the audience to become engaged, but we were a tough crowd and sadly not many of us! Mind you, that did give me the opportunity of moving to the back row in the second act since the young boy next to me was wriggling, fidgeting and playing with his coloured light wand the whole time. And I can attest to the fact that the second act was slicker and more engaging too - although my moving had nothing to do with that!
Produced and directed by the NWTAC team, they had their work cut out being both on stage and in front of , but their hard work paid dividend and once again, they score highly with the result - and their take on the traditional responses was refreshing and worked well too.
Merry Christmas to all!
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
On - 20.12.25
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