BEAUTY & THE BEAST. To 5 January.

Cardiff.

BEAUTY & THE BEAST
by Charles Way.

Sherman Theatre (Venue 1) To 12 January 2008.
Tue-Sat 2pm also 8-11 Jan 10am, 1-5, 12 Jan 7pm
Audio-described 3 Jan 7pm.
BSL Signed 2 Jan 7pm.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.

TICKETS: 029 2064 6900.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 December.

Lovely to look at, less delightful to listen to.

Charles Way locates his story in the late 18th-century, a generation or so after its best-known literary source. But this isn’t the domestic, Mozartian world of Way’s Cinderella, despite Bella’s sister sort-of quoting Dr Johnson.

The rose-wallpapered houses of her family’s wealthy London and impoverished Welsh homes are contrasted with the Gothic darkness at the Beast’s Forest (of Dean) castle. With its pointed-arches and suggestions of ruin, this is the nightmare counterpart to the Enlightenment and incipient, nature-loving Romanticism.

Both those are present in the family’s surface wealth and poverty, and the enduring devotion to Bella’s long-ungrateful sister Cassandra by Daniel Knightly (a name recalling Jane Austen’s Emma).

The dark world of Witchcraft and embittered love lies behind the Beast’s bestiality. Bella has the imaginative instinct that brings her here. She’s the one with disturbing prophetic dreams; her pair of attendant Wolves become the Beast’s servants. A huge moon is visible through the house walls, before being seen openly looming behind Beast’s castle, and becoming a further extension of Bella’s imaginative strength as the mirror in which she sees the fate of characters emotionally close yet physically distant from her.

Advertised for 7+, the show needs no historical or literary background to be enjoyed. The reason for the minimum age is more likely the sudden crashes, the Castle’s darkness or moments like the Beast’s sudden leaps from rampart to courtyard. This show's certainly not short on visual and physical sensation.

For Way’s script incorporates movement and accommodates a significant musical score, elements that register strongly in David Bond’s production. Designer Rachael Canning distinguishes subtly between Bella’s neat bedroom in London prosperity and the less tidy Welsh home, both of them front-stage surfaces behind which the nightmares occur. Similarly, Ace McCarron’s lighting provides the brightness of daily life in contrast to the dark Castle, with its strong, unnatural colourings shining through arched gateways.

There’s only one drawback, but a major one. The care given to visual, musical and physical aspects isn’t matched by the spoken. The dialogue suffers from generalised and ill-considered vocal performances. A pity; this script deserves much better.

Bella: Bethan Walker.
Beast: Robert Vernon.
Godwin:Dafydd Emyr.
Cassandra: Catherine Yates.
Daniel Knightly/Master Owen: Richard Shackley.
Housekeeper: Lynda Rooke.
Wolves: Russel Boodie, Deborah Light.

Director: David Bond.
Designer: Rachael Canning.
Lighting: Ace McCarron.
Sound/Music: Hugh Fowler, Johanna Ballou, John Hardy of John Hardy Music.
Choreographer/Assistant director: Frances Newman.
Fight director: Kevin McCurdy.

2008-01-01 21:04:57