While Milton Keynes (see below), has Cinderella at the mercy of her two horrid stepsisters, the Everyman's version of the tale throws in her odious stepmother as well. As portrayed by Roger McKern, Lady Cleeve is the stuff that childhood nightmares are made of, being not only very nasty but very frightening too, with her hissing feline companion Painswick all-too-clearly a witch's familiar. Nor are Cinders's sufferings in any way alleviated by her usual good-sort dad, since the writer and director Sue Colverd has excised him from the script.

Happily for our heroine (Joanne McShane), there is always the reliable Buttons (Tim Goodwright). Of all the characters in panto, he always seems to me the kindest, behaving with the greatest magnanimity when his adored Cinders at last finds her Prince (Dylan Williams) with the help of a good Fairy (Amy Price).

This a a good-looking and tuneful production, though the latter quality is missing from the communal singalong number which, oddly, appears to have no tune at all. Glynn Sweet and Michael Shaw give us a gaily caparisoned pair of Uglies. Perhaps it was a fear or damaging some of their colourful outfits that made them stay their hands in what had looked like being a pleasantly (for the audience) messy make-up scene before the Ball.

continues until January 13. Box office: 01242 572573.