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Theatre Review: Sinderella 2: The Honeymoon - Etcetera Theatre, Camden


Sinderella 2: The Honeymoon 
Etcetera Theatre

Oh dear. I’m not usually one to give a bad review, and in most productions I find there’s always something, however small, to enjoy or appreciate. But by the end of Sinderella 2, an ‘adult pantomime’ currently playing at the Etcetera theatre in Camden, my co-reviewer and I just stared at each other in horrified disbelief, appalled that something this bad was actually allowed to be performed.

Obviously a pantomime is meant to bend the rules to some extent, and we presumed that the ‘adult’ element would involve slightly saucier content. One of the real amusements of a regular panto is the proliferation of double-entendre jokes that the grown-ups find amusing but that go over the heads of the children. In this production, that subtlety was removed; instead we had 70 minutes of cast members trying to outdo each other in how outrageous or vulgar they could be. The subjects of these ‘jokes’ included rape and Parkinson’s disease, with charming touches of racism, sexism, misogyny and homophobia. They ranged from groan-inducing to downright offensive.

There was no set, the lighting seemed faulty, and the costumes were threadbare, mismatched and, in the case of Cinderella, pretty alarming. The cast kept making jokes about the size of the audience, but sadly there was quite clearly good reason for it being so poorly attended. I’ve seen a lot of fringe theatre in tiny venues on miniscule budgets, and none of these things have to lessen your enjoyment if there’s a degree of creativity on display. But this was lazy, laboured and clichéd –made without an ounce of joy or enthusiasm or care for what they were doing. It had a frantic, sub-school play, ‘this’ll do’ quality to it, as if everyone involved just couldn’t be bothered.

It pains me to be so damning but I really couldn’t find anything to enjoy here, and I’d advise you to give it a miss. Whoever wrote the script should be, quite frankly, ashamed of themselves. Let’s hope there aren’t any more sequels.

No stars!

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