Beauty and the Beast
Luke Adamson
Directed by Matthew Parker
Bridge House Theatre, Penge
Star rating: 3.5
This bijou, four hander panto comes with a lot of charm and sits nicely in the Bridge House’s intimate space. It runs the story (not quite the version we’re familiar with) with just four characters, a lot of ingenuity and spares us the doubling most texts would demand.
We’re firmly local too. Belle (Georgina May Haley), a bookish lass, lives in Penge – pronounced to rhyme with blancmange – Su Mer. The posturing prince (Theo Bracey) lives in a castle in the North Wood. Fifi (Cameron Griffiths) works for the prince and Lady Amere (Cassandra Hodges) styles herself as a magician and tries maliciously to manipulate everyone else. Thanks to Luke Adamson’s video design, we get plenty of scene changes.
Griffiths is splendid as Fifi – camp, knowing and funny. He also alternates falsetto singing with his, presumably natural, middle range tenor – and it becomes comic. Bracey is good as the dishy but arrogant prince who eventually changes his ways after a spell as the beast. I like, incidentally, the simple way Matthew Parker directs the two transition scenes. It shows you can achieve high drama without high tech.
As Belle, Hayley starts as a shy gauche girl distressed because the library is shut and then develops the character into mature woman in love discussing Jane Eyre with the Prince. Hodges, meanwhile, does a great deal of the traditional maniacal, malevolent cackling.
There are some lovely musical moments in this show. MD Zara Harris has done a grand job although the backing track is too loud in places. There is for example an attractive trio “Find Your Grail” towards the end of the first half in which Haley, Bracey and Griffiths really bring out the harmonies. And “Tonight My Love”, a duet sung by Haley and Bracey, is noteworthy for the beauty of his line often being above hers.
The gentle jokes in this entertaining panto frequently send up theatre and panto with asides to the audience pretending to be off script and that always makes for good comedy. And, mercifully, it spares us most of the usual clichéd puns although there is a priceless one about someone unconscious who keeps muttering “chicken tikka” having falling into a korma. Fifi’s love affair with a candle stick does not, however, add much.
A word of praise for Tom Thornhill. He does front of house and stage manages this show. The cast keep referring to him and he often appears on stage: a man who seems to be able to wear several hats at once and do it with aplomb.
This Beauty and the Beast is an unassuming show, pleasingly done and with strength.
