Beauty and the Beast

A nice large, and appreciative, audience for this annual event from Blackmore Players.  Using the traditional story of Beauty and the Beast is, in my opinion, much better than trying to emulate the Disney version.  Director Rebecca Smith did well with her first production.  This venue has a small stage and almost no backstage area so putting on a show with scene changes is always challenging.  Rebecca made good use of the front of tabs and the scene changes going on behind the tabs were discrete and well timed.

The cast was quite small but, again, this is necessary for the size of the stage.  The inclusion of an onstage band was a nice idea but, unfortunately, they were frequently a distraction during the dialogue being performed on stage.  Also, because their sound was unmasked it was a bit too loud for some of the singers, drowning out those with less power in their vocals.  It might have been better if they had been off stage to obtain a better, balanced, sound overall.

The Principals gave good performances, Matthew Pearson (Prince Pavel/Beast) made the difference between his two characters very clear.  Wearing that mask and wig on stage cannot have made it easy but I think it was worth it for the effect!  Kira Beavis made a delightful Beauty, she has a nice voice, but it is not too powerful, so she was one that we didn’t hear too well over the band.  Keith Goody makes an excellent Dame although it would have been nice to see a few costume changes as is traditional with the Dame in Panto.

Steve Drinkall and Simon Haskell were excellent as Igor 1 & Igor 2, two very strong performers who milked the action for everything they could.  Linda Raymond and Linda Cearns were good as the two other sisters, Charity and Prudence.  Two more seasoned performers who know exactly how to play the audience.  Hilary Martin was very good as the Witch, suitably evil.  Ryan Stevens (Merchant) and Connor Gardener (Henry) completed the cast together with Jean Appleton who played both the horse and Medium-sized Ben.

There was a small ensemble who worked very hard in all the chorus numbers, providing good support for the production.

Scenery was good, necessarily limited but effective, costumes were lovely, sound was good, especially the sound effects and the lighting was spot on.

A nice evening’s entertainment, thank you for inviting me.

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