In her fresh version of the bridal fairytale, Annie Siddons mixes something old with something new. A magical dress, the midnight deadline and that missing shoe remain, but Siddons’ idiosyncratic adventure adds socialist politics, a contract killer and a 6,500-year-old badger goddess.
We’re accustomed now to seeing more independent Cinderellas but they seldom seem less bothered about the ball. Our straight-talking heroine (Áine O’Neill-Mason, in an assured professional debut) can’t be fussed with “all that hoo-ha” and – most unusually – mainly goes along to see her dad (Nicholas Shaw). Siddons has let the father live, given the stepmother (Shelley Atkinson) a dead ex and made the prince (Jason Yeboa) the scion of a nascent railway baron (Jonathan Markwood).
