BEAUTY AND THE BEAST by Liz Lochhead. Theatre Babel to 29 December

Glasgow

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
by Liz Lochhead

Theatre Babel at The Tron Theatre. To 29 December 2001
Runs 1hr 45min One interval

TICKETS 0141 552 4267
Review Timothy Ramsden 21 December

Gracious writing, strong performances and direction on an excellent set make this a contender for non-pantomime show of the season.Glasgow and Edinburgh each boast a Beauty this Christmas. But while Stuart Paterson's well-known version at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum scores in making the ending a lovers' re-union, and allows for seasonal panto expectations, Liz Lochhead's new script for Babel is darkly serious, focuses on the magic of storytelling and enters fully into the emotional experience of her heroine.

Paterson makes Beauty a Cinderella figure with two bullying sisters. Lochhead's Bonnie has only one sister, Julie Duncanson's affected but non-stereotyped Griselda. Griselda's long words are affectation; Bonnie's, on the rare occasions she uses them, are necessary attempts to pin down precise meaning.

Peter Collins' Beast may attract hisses from the pantomime brigade but his roars are transparently more agony than anger. Rage at his condition and the way it frustrates his affection also emerges in his jealousy of the chair which has its arms round Bonnie and cuddles her body.

Wild, solitary and tormented as he is, Beast reflects how, 'Happy memories make you feel sad'. This sombre mood is reflected in Robin Peoples' set with its dark chequered rectangles and their deceptive 3D effect. This is a world of artifice and misleading appearances. Furniture revolves out of the ground, or talks, taking on gender roles as 'Dame Clock' and 'Sir Chair'

Kirstin McLean's Bonnie is a model of unwimpish pure-heartedness and emotional sanity amid her father's bemusement, sister's affectation and lover-to-be's inarticulacy. Yet even the miracle her kiss works has it limits; her transformed lover-Prince still wants a bestial hour with her each night.

The play's not quite perfect: its final minutes hardly establish the male lover as a character, and Lochhead falls back on increasing use of narration to hurry events to the end. But this is a fine enough piece to make it worth hoping it might be toured away from the panto season, with as many of its present cast as possible.

Bonnie: Kirstin McLean
Griselda: Julie Duncanson
Father: Finlay Welsh
Beast: Peter Collins
Storyteller: Michael Marra

Director: Graham McLaren
Designer: Robin Peoples
Lighting: Kai Fischer

2001-12-28 02:14:55