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A classic fairytale unfathomably reinvented.Summary
Rating
Ok
It may be blazing sunshine outside but at Greenwich Theatre it feels like panto season has arrived, as Beauty and the Beast comes to the stage. Written by Sidonie Welton and Brad Tutt, this is a reinvention of the classic tale, which they are clear about from the start. But clarity is not an outstanding feature of the show, as the plot becomes increasingly convoluted and difficult to follow.
Framed as the adventures of a travelling company trying to decide what play to put on, in this version Belle is quickly left at the castle by her father, where she meets the Beast, his library and some spirits that inhabit the space. She also has two sisters, one of whom wants to get into the Castle to hold her wedding, intending to trick the Beast and claim it for herself and her husband-to-be. There’s a masquerade ball, an additional witch, a battling banjos competition, an interwoven folk tale about a lost duke – there’s just too much going on! It had lost the audience by the interval. And the show itself admits there’s a problem, by literally pausing for a plot recap right in the middle of the second half.
There’s a sense that the company is trying to create theatrical vision through imagination and storytelling, but it doesn’t really come together and instead it feels more like a dress rehearsal. It may be that they are attempting poor theatre: the costumes seem to have come from a dressing up box, and the staging and props are sparse and homespun. Whatever the case, unaccompanied as it is by any hint of the vibrancy of panto and fairytale even the OTT, slapstick humour doesn’t lift the piece. None of it brings the glamour and magic that the audience of tiny girls in their Belle dresses have come to see.
There are good points. Louise Cielecki as Belle is bold and driven throughout, and defies the Disney-style archetype of what a heroine should be like. The small cast are clearly competent musicians, effective in the choral moments, and enthusiastic about what they do. But atrociously cartoon accents for some characters are difficult to fathom, so the dialogue is further lost.
Clearly aimed at a family audience, with inadequate texture and narrative tension the length of the show is too much for very small children, who become restless. The whole really needs to stripped back – perhaps by losing some of the cheesy Dad jokes – to give a clear through story and some simple, better-paced audience interaction.
With a considered rewrite, who knows – by Christmas this could be the panto.
Produced by Greenwich Theatre
Written by Sidonie Welton and Brad Tutt
Beauty and the Beast runs at Greenwich Theatre until 25th August.
Further information and booking are available here.
