Beauty and the Beast. To 16 January.
Stratford-upon-Avon
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
by Laurence Boswell
Royal Shakespeare Theatre To 16 January 2005
Mon-Sat various dates 11am, 2.30,5,7.15pm Sun 12,19 Dec,9 Jan 3pm
no performance 6,13,20,24-26 Dec, 3 Jan
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 609 1110
www.rsc.org.uk
Review: Jan Pick: 25.11.04
Magical evening for all.From a virtually bare stage the RSC conjure up a magical evening in their revived production of Beauty and the Beast. Weaving a potent net of creativity and imagination between the actors and the audience, this is family entertainment at its best.
Laurence Boswell's reworking of the famous story is no saccharine-sweet affair. Disguised by the fairytale, Beauty's journey through adolescence and her realisation of the need to distinguish between appearance and reality are played out with wit and style by an excellent cast.
Her squabbling siblings, immediately recognisable types, are very funny - especially Sirine Saba as the terrible Veronique and Beth Vyse as her rather dim sister, Marie Claire, whose ambitions in life are posh blokes' to marry and posh nosh' to eat. Saba and Miltos Yerolemou, playing Beauty's youngest brother, double as the Beast's robotic servants in a direct line of descent from R2D2 - performing a wickedly funny routine in the castle.
The show also provides audiences, young and old, with the occasional frisson of delicious fear. Beast's castle - created by lighting, a few props and the power of suggestion - and the wolf-inhabited forest around it are fantastic, particularly the wolves with their glowing red eyes.
Beast's entrance for his first dinner date with Beauty forms a theatrical high moment (deserving its round of applause); Gary Sefton's Beast manages the difficult task of being very frightening, yet appealing.
Darren Tunstall as Beauty's father is tragic in his weakness and Jan Pearson wins sympathy as both Beauty's Mother and the Witch who cares for and watches over Beast, while the sinister, black-clad Chorus become horses, wolves, servants or anything else imagination and their agility make them.
Great choreography, ingenious sound effects and lighting, and excellent music blend to make this a fast, funny, frightening and ultimately happy evening, both for children and adults just what a Christmas show should be.
Marie Claire: Beth Vyse
Jean Louis: Darren Tunstall
Helene/The Witch: Jan Pearson
Beauty: Karen Paullada
Phillipe: Christian Flint
Andre: Daniel Tuite
Veronique/Beast's Maid: Sirine Saba
Emile/Beast's Man: Miltos Yerolemou
Beast: Gary Sefton
Chorus: Lee Boggess, Darren Carnall, Maggie Chadwick, Sergio Covino, Alistair David, Darren J Fawthrop (swing), Matt Firth, Michelle Lukes, Ebony Molina, Flik Swan, Ewan Wardrop, Nancy Wei George (swing)
Director: Laurence Boswell
Designer: Jeremy Herbert
Lighting: Adam Silverman
Sound: Mic Pool
Music: Mick Sands
Additional Music/Orchestrations: Jeremy Holland-Smith
Music Director: John Woolf
Choreography: Stuart Hopps
Revival and Additional Choreography: Heather Habens
Movement: Gary Sefton & Darren Tunstall
Costume: Kandis Cook
Fight director: Terry King
Voice Work: Ailsa Gudgeon & Lyn Darnley
Dance Captain: Darren J Fawthrop
Assistant director: Mitchell Moreno
2004-11-28 10:07:19