Plymouth Theatre Review

Easy To Follow: 3/5
Family Friendly: 2/5
Must See: 4/5

Title: ‘Ciderella‘
Venue: The Barbican Theatre
Date: 20th December 2024

This festive season was rounded off in style with The Plymuff Players production of Cinderella with a cheeky twist, absolutely packed full of Devonian humour.
After our energetic pantomime introductions from the trio, setting a vibrant mood for the evening, we kicked things off with a pre-recorded skit in the ‘dressing room’ – the cast literally had nowhere to hide from the laughs, with more sprinkled throughout the whole show, shot in many recognisable local places.
‘Does anyone speak Plymouth?!’ quotes our leading lady ‘Ciderella’ played by Suzy Bennet, whose witty line delivery and quick quips to a particularly difficult heckler secured plenty of laughs from the full house.
Edward Tripps’ on screen persona shone a little brighter than his somewhat ungrounded comedic angle on stage, yet was still met with plenty of chuckles; ‘don’t worry, i’m not Cornish!’. With a later appearance as a very unexpected big yellow puppet-buckfast bottle in hand, this anti-big bird of sorts added a very fun surreal character to the mix, giving our cast (and audience!) lots of hilarious energy to play with. Sam Crawleys’ small monologue towards the end of the show was fabulous, showing his range of styles from cheeky jabs at the beginning of the show, (‘What’s a bloody influencer?!’ ) to a nicely articulated finishing piece.
If you’re in the mood for a few laughs, a few more ciders and a good old fashioned sing along definitely look no farther, with audience participation being greatly encouraged. Chock-full of lots of skits, sketches and characters, the show was full of cheer, however I did forget I was meant to be watching a rendition of cinderella. If this group puts on any more original content I’ll be sure to take some adult family as I’m excited to see what they do next.
With humorous dialogue abound, lots of word play and local references, you’ll be sure to know you’re in ‘Plymuff’ in this crowd. You’ll definitely want to get a babysitter for this panto!

Review by Abigail Court

*Gifted / This theatre review was written following a gifted ticket to the performance. However, all opinions and views expressed in this review are entirely that of the reviewer and the review has not been influenced in any way by the provision of the ticket. Our commitment remains to provide an honest and unbiased assessment of the experience.