THIS year's pantomime at Bromyard's Conquest Theatre was Cinderella's Dream.

Written specially for the Conquest by Nell Palmer, it was a traditional pantomime with a bit of local flavour.

Cinderella, played by Aisling Cheeseman, was joined by two luridly dressed and be-wigged ugly sisters, played for laughs by Brenden Moore and David Verinder. Her friends were Buttonhole and Westkitt (Josh Herriot and Geoff Nash) and a children's chorus of rats, mice, lizards and wizards.

It had everything you'd expect - a dastardly villain, Prince Charming, a fairy godmother, a pumpkin and some very old jokes, laced through with audience participation and well-known songs.

Less expected was a unicycling Russian baron, Father Christmas and a Darth Vader look-a-like.

There were confident performances from the two principal boys and I enjoyed Dave Colledge's Ripoff character.

My son's favourite, however, was, without doubt, Buttonhole.

The cast were obviously enjoying themselves and the audience joined in enthusiastically.

It was all good fun but perhaps a little too long.

Sue Vickers