This show follows the familiar tale of Beauty and the Beast, delivered in a gentle way – perfect for younger children. The set is literally constructed out of cardboard boxes and some repurposed crates, the addition of more cardboard props is as technical as it gets – this is Fringe at best.
In this version of the tale, Beauty lives with her merchant father and two awful sisters. They are vain and greedy whereas Beauty has little but love for her family. On a journey, the father falls foul of a terrible Beast – who lives in an enchanted castle. He returns home to say goodbye to his family for one last time before returning to the Beast to be made into a Lasagne. But Beauty agrees to take his place. Overtime, she falls in love with the Beast and eventually breaks the enchantment.
The cast consists of four people who switch between different roles throughout. This is done simply with the use of wigs, additional props, and accent change. Audience participation was required at times as items needed to be located, and magical spells needed to be remembered. There were also some very simple slap stick moments which had the youngest members of the audience giggling.
Katie is easily scared, some although I felt this was better suited to younger children – she really enjoyed the story. It was a very sweet re-telling of the story, delivered in a no-frills style that focused on just that. There was no political jokes or humour for the adults – just simple story telling.
Overall, it’s three stars from me.
P.S. We were gifted press tickets in order to provide this review but all thoughts and opinion are entirely our own. You can buy tickets here.
