The real Cinderella to perform over Christmas

HOW old is Cinderella? Pantomime fanatics in Kilkee, Kilrush and Lissycasey should be able to hazard a guess over the Christmas season. The question been a hot topic in Garrihy’s Bar in Moyasta for weeks since rehearsals for the production began there two month’s ago. Members of the Crack’d Spoon cast can now officially reveal that Cinderella is 2,860 years old. Originally Chinese, she cropped up in the fable Yeh-Shen, minus a fairy Godmother, (charmed by a magical fish instead) but complete with a “golden shoe” to identify the persecuted heroine.
“That’s not a Wikileak but comes authoritatively from Wikipedia,” cast member Rob Hopkins confirmed.
The Chinese fable evolved into a grim Grimm’s Fairy Tale with the Ugly Sisters, played in West Clare by the hilarious Nora Daly and strangely convincing Garda Jessie McNamara, slicing off their heels and toes in a desperate bid to fit the slipper and claim the prince. A throwback to the prized elegance of tiny bound Chinese feet perhaps?
Crack’d Spoon’s Cinderella is a high-octane farce with stalwarts of the panto season, Mick Daly and Rob Hopkins as Cinder’s long-suffering father and wicked step mama and the flouncing brilliance of Roy Dannagher as the ebullient Dandinni.
With the Jedward twins ousting Buttons to play Jeddy and Eddy (Alan MacNamara and Simon Latham) and Vanessa Miller as the Prince, this show is poised to have children and grown ups of all ages chortling in the aisles over the festive season with matinee shows on December 30 and 31st in Kilkee Community Centre, new-year shows in Kilrush Community Centre on January 2 and 3 and a final show in the Lissycasey hall on January 7.
The gate money from the best-attended performance will be distributed to three charities, West Clare Mental Health Services, Brothers of Charity Clare Research Group and the Barnados Children’s Charity.