BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. To 5 January.

London.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
by Paul Hunter, Carl Grose and the company.

Lyric Theatre Hammersmith To 5 January 2008.
Wed-Fri 7pm, Sat 6pm Mat Thu-Sat 1.30pm.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.

TICKETS: 8700 500511.
www.lyric.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 December.

Can be too fussy, but never dull or routine.
This is a reunion for Hammersmith’s Lyric with Told By An Idiot, represented in director and co-author Paul Hunter plus performer Hayley Carmichael, and Kneehigh Theatre, in co-author Carl Grose.

So plenty of theatrical invention’s expected. And it’s here, with a lightness and flair that often has more to it than first appears. That’s true from the very start, an unseasonal shriek that turns out to be the death-pains of Belle’s mother, dying in childbirth and so unintentionally bequeathing guilt to this much put-upon youngest child. Or so it seems.

In Leeds this year, Beauty has no sisters, in Cardiff one. So it’s quite epic of Hammersmith to run to the full complement. Though it doesn’t make Belle’s life any easier. Lisa Hammond evokes both child and adult, speaking with the simplicity of a child who’s been told what to think from an early age, while her face shows the experience of being family skivvy.

And when the sisters are a dolled-up, confident Hayley Carmichael and the evidently male Nick Haverson, no wonder every day’s washday for Belle. Her request for dad to bring back a rose, rather than the costly presents the others want, becomes the outcome of someone living without great expectations from life.

After this, living with Leo Wringer’s angry Beast is just something else to be taken on board by a practical, resilient person. His angry wrenching at the wall which rises centre-stage shows the opposite from Belle; it’s the fury of someone who knows he’s been cheated in life. This raging finds peace with her, the more so for being without the usual gathering-round for a major costume change at the moment of liberation.

Elsewhere there’s the kind of theatrical byplay for which Told by an Idiot’s famous, like the fine pastiche of a 1940s variety number to start off the second act. At other times, such as the confusion between doctors and solicitors with the same name practising on adjacent floors, the story becomes bogged down by over-ingenuity. Still, there are worse faults, and certainly many less interesting performances than fill this intriguing show.

Belle: Lisa Hammond.
Beast: Leo Wringer.
Lawyer/Brioche: Nick Haverson.
Bridget/Dorothy: Hayley Carmichael.
Boris: Dharmesh Patel.
Kronenbourg: Javier Marzan.
Francois: Yolanda Vazquez.

Director: Paul Hunter.
Designer: Michael Vale.
Lighting: Natasha Chivers.
Sound: Nick Manning.
Choreographer: Barry Grantham.
Assistant designer: Anna Finch.

2008-01-02 21:21:58