Christmas is coming; and on a Saturday afternoon at the Citizens’, the glorious red-and-gold auditorium is packed with excited children and their families, revelling in artistic director Dominic Hill’s wonderful production of Cinderella, in the brilliant 1989 version by Scottish playwright Stuart Paterson. When it first opened in 1878, the Citizens’ – known in its earlier years as the Royal Princess’s Theatre – was built with panto in mind, with huge backstage scene-painting workshops and costume stores, as well as a fine sloping walk-down stage, and a warm, curving auditorium built for audience participation; and as the Cinderella team draw the panto audience straight into the action, it’s clear that that old magic is still working perfectly, 139 years on.
