Bourne, Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel

The holiday season always affords a plethora of light cheerful family oriented entertainment. Local and international stars always find their way into a regional panto of some sort. Joan Collins is somewhere being Joan and David Hasslehoff is Hooking it up in Peter Pan. Cross gender casting is totally acceptable or rather expected, as is children rushing the stage and a mandatory audience sing-along. For non Brits it is sometimes hard to understand why you would subject yourself to theatrical standards that any other time of year would be booed off the stage. However, in the spirit of Christmas, you can forgive the Panto Dame from laughing at him er... Herself.

What's even more intriguing is continuing this through the first week of January. My yearly venture was just slightly close to the genre last week when I saw Kneehigh Theatre Company's take on Hansel and Gretel. The Southbank Centre always tries to posh it up a bit with their Xmas fare. I first discovered Kneehigh at the National with Tristan and Ysolde. I fell in love! Dark story telling with humour, passion, cabaret and a bit of irreverence toward the traditional take of the story.

H&G had all the gender bending and sing along (the audience was requested to stand and sing Oh Canada) and almost "it's behind you". But the twisted delight of the show exemplified it self as rabbit puppets found themselves constantly being shot or flayed. Not your typical panto. Parents were warned that some children were finding it a bit disturbing. Who knew?

The other tradition of Christmas is the seasonal "ballet" at Sadler's Wells. For the last decade Matthew Bourne has given us his take on something. Whether it be Swan Lake with male swans or an upgraded and modernised Nutcracker, Bourne always knows how to subvert the status-quo while lulling us into believing we are getting just what we expected.

This year, in Matthew Bourne's Cinderella, our downtrodden maid finds her Fighter Pilot, with the aid of her "angel" in London during the Blitz. The ball where the shoe drops is actually a night at the Cafe de Paris on the night it's hit by a bomb. Heart-wrenching as it is, Borne gives enough of the faerie tale to lead our hearts and a he is a master storyteller enough that we willingly follow where ever that incredulous tale takes us.

Typical ballet this is not. Nor is it modern dance. It is classic with modern twists, and modern with traditional flair. For ballet purists, he is a charlatan, but he must be given some credit - his ever growing following has ensured sell out seasons for years.