SLEEPING BEAUTY. To 24 January.
London.
SLEEPING BEAUTY
by Rosy Fordham.
Unicorn Theatre (Weston Auditorium) To 24 January 2009.
Tue-Sun.
10.30am 17-19 Dec, 22-23 Jan.
1.30-pm 17-18 Dec, 14-15, 20-22 Jan.
2pm 20-21, 23-24, 27-28 Dec, 17-18, 24 Jan.
no performance 24-25, 29 Dec-13 Jan.
Audio-described 21 Jan 1.30pm (+Touch Tour 11am-12pm), 24 Jan 2pm (+Touch Tour 11.30am-12.30pm).
BSL Signed 16 Jan 10.30am, 17 Jan 2pm.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7645 0560.
www.unicorntheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 December.
A serious core mixes with over-fussy devices in a modern-focused Sleeping Beauty.
There could be a surprise when members of school parties get home and are asked about this Sleeping Beauty. What will enquiring relatives make of the scene in the trenches, or the briars growing over the council house? Then there’s the figure that keeps appearing in Tower Bridge (a ‘castle’ within viewing distance of the Unicorn).
A fair amount can be taken out of traditional tales; often the widest-known versions (step forward pantomime and Disney) are boiled-down from just one variant. But adding new material is very tricky. It may be a new play, but at this time of the year it has to go under the old name. And that makes for expectations which can be subverted, but only if the new material has a strong structure and clear narrative line.
Rosy Fordham’s done plenty of her own varying. Her Sleeping Beauty is an uneasy compromise between comic moments which the young audience enjoy whatever their origin, some over-sophisticated devices that leave spectators confused (why is Aurora, the title character, fully awake and, having left Edwardian London, now watching a modern pantomime ‘Cinderella’ in 18th-century costume?), and several strong scenes that excavate how people develop and form friendships.
Drawing on her own family’s history, and London’s acceptance of immigrants sucked up the Thames, Fordham shows a déclassé Russian family in their new, small London home, forgetting to invite Carabosse to their daughter’s naming-day. This doesn’t eventually turn out such a problem, because clearly, from the start, Samantha Adams’ wicked fairy is quite a softy at heart. Their relationship takes over from Aurora’s with her deceased Nanny as Gehane Strehler’s insistent teenager demands to choose the Prince who’ll awake her in a century’s time, before getting the finger-pricking over and done with.
There are promising ideas here but they need clearer working out and less fuss – why is the idea a princess must sing so important to Fordham? And Rosamunde Hutt’s production might have encouraged less fussy acting when the cast are trying to entertain. When matters focus on the central relationships both performances and story are far more involving.
Carabosse: Samantha Adams.
Melissa/Watson/Tooth Fairy/Marlon: John Cockerill.
Princess Katerina Alexandrevna/Prince Charming/Mum: Julie Hewlett.
Nanny/Dawn/Joyce: Irma Inniss.
Letitia/Alf/Mr Levy/Ash/Tyrone Demontfort/Prince H: Amit Sharma.
Prince Vasily Nicholiovich Romanov/Prince Eric/Dandini/Frank: David Smith.
Clarissa/Princess Aurora: Gehane Strehler.
Director: Rosamunde Hutt.
Designer: Richard Aylwin.
Lighting: Mark Dymock.
Sound/Music: Joe Townsend.
Movement/Choreographer: Lawrence Evans.
Pianist/Assistant musical director: Joe Hood.
2008-12-18 00:57:48