SLEEPING BEAUTY. To 25 January.
Seasonal
SLEEPING BEAUTY
by Rufus Norris
Young Vic, London To 25 January 2002
Runs 2hr 5min One interval
10.30am 11,17,23,30 December 7,8,14,15,21 January
2pm 12,16,18,19,21,24,26,28,31 December, 2,4,6,9,11,13,16,18,20,22,23,25 January
2.30pm 14,17,23,30 December, 7,14, January
7.30pm Thu-Sat
TICKETS 020 7928 6363
Review Timothy Ramsden 9 December
An all-round winner once more from the Christmas-time Young Vic.There are two truisms about Christmas in England. One concerns peace and goodwill. The other's the high quality of the Young Vic's innovative Christmas shows. This year writer/director Rufus Norris takes us – and his characters – on an unexpected narrative journey. Going far beyond the familiar story makes for a less neat narrative but raises a thematic whirlwind.
It's dark (more thorns than roses, and not for the very young) but has a consistent fear-breaking comedy - some moments could be left to fly without this comic, choric safety net. And it plays with narrative structure, starting with Beauty already asleep, and Fairy Goody relating what's happened to a nincompoop Prince who's clearly not going to be up to an awakening. All this is enacted before the second half pushes into the less familiar territory.
Though she enchanted young Beauty with sleep, Goody lives up to her name. She's well-intentioned; the sleep spell was an angry moment's aberration. Understandable, as she blessed Beauty's infertile parents with an instant pregnancy, then was refused a place at the ceremony as far too earthy for a squeaky-clean court.
She spends 16 years almost succeeding in keeping her own spell at bay, introducing a note of moral complexity, increased by a self-sacrificial element: stopping evil could cost her life.
There's further complexity in the evil zone. Christopher Brand's gigantic Ogre may roar with greed and fury: humans are a tasty main course at Ogre meals. But there's danger, too, at home. The handsome Prince is half-human, half-Ogre and his Ogress mum is as keen to protect him from a literal roasting as she is liable to cave in to her craving for his awakened Beauty and their offspring.
Danielle King's a strong-minded Beauty, Daniel Cerqueira mixes sympathy and horror as Mrs Ogre. The whole company works well, in a production staged on a central elevated drum, with trap flaps opening to reveal a vicious, snapping forest or a row of grey-faced comic servants. Richard Chew's music has an earthy, carol-like strength while Tim Mitchell's lighting creates a vibrant mix of earthy colours and red-flooded rage.
Ogre/Ensemble: Christopher Brand
Ogress/Ensemble: Daniel Cerqueira
Prince of Questions/Ensemble: Paul Ewing
Minstrel/Ensemble: Hazel Holder
Beauty: Danielle King
Prince/Ensemble: James Love
Goody: Helena Lymbery
Queen Beauty/Ensemble: Katie Quentin
Tableslave/Ensemble: Duncan Wisbey
King Beauty/Ensemble: Miltos Yerolemou
Director: Rufus Norris
Designer: Katrina Lindsay
Lighting: Tim Mitchell
Sound: Paul Arditti
Music: Richard Chew
Musical Direction: Jonathan Gill
Movement: Scarlett Mackmin
2002-12-10 14:22:45