Scotland on Sunday 5 November 2026
It is always nice to feel welcome in a theatre, but this Christmas director Joanna Bowman wants to go one step further. In her staging of Cinderella at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, she is inviting everyone to the ball.
“The production is thrilled that the audience has arrived,” she says. “We’re reaching a hand out to the audience and saying, ‘Thanks for being with us. Now we can begin.’”
That spirit of inclusivity, she hopes, will spill over into every aspect of the show, including the design. Sitting with her at the end of a day’s rehearsal is designer Jessica Worrall. Working with Bowman for the third time, Worrall hopes to capture the audience’s imagination with a procession of theatrical tricks. There will be trapdoors, gauzes, a bear and a cuddly dog. It is all held together with a look she describes as “rococo K-pop”.
“I haven’t done anything this lavish for a while,” says the designer, a veteran of the People Show theatre collective. “It’s a bit Adam Ant, a bit Vivienne Westwood, a bit Marie Antoinette and, at the same time, all these modern touches in it. It’s nice to be playful and over-the-top.” [READ MORE]