The Last Cinderella
pend fringe @ gateway, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Group: Forefront Media Productions

Stuart Simpson

Forefront Productions 'have set out to use the energy and passion of young people'. Not all of the company are 'young' as I understand the word, but they all do show the inexperience of youth. Watching The Last Cinderella, you are watching people learn. This makes for an interesting performance, but not an entertaining one. You can see the cogs turning, understand what the writer is trying to create, what the actors are trying to portray; you just don't feel it.

At the heart of The Last Cinderella is the idea that fantasy can offer no real escape from the difficulties people face in their lives. This is an odd point of view for a young playwright to adopt, and to adopt so uncritically. Not because a playwright should have faith in the power of their drama to offer solace to the wounded masses, but because theatre at its best in not an escape from the world, but an engagement with life.

Sam Cannon is attempting to explore an idea that is important to any artistic endeavor, but one that is new to him. It is not new to the rest of us, however. The focus on one narrow aspect of human fantasy, its escapist quality may be fair enough material for a play, but it needs to be done with the knowledge that fantasy can also provide us with something that enriches our lives. Cannon's failure to engage with this side of fantasy is only made all the more apparent as The Last Cinderella is performed at the world's largest international arts festival.

Forefront Productions are limited by both naïve writing and naïve acting. Shouting may help to keep the audience awake on a hot and drowsy summer's afternoon, but someone needs to ask the actors to cut it out - loud does not mean emotionally powerful. One thing The Last Cinderella doesn't lack, however, is sincerity. Sincerity isn't enough, but without it you won't get anywhere.

4 August to 23 August.

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