Beauty and the Beast

Warren McWilliams excellent script full of silly puns and one liners and plenty of characters for the society to offer all its members a few lines is a great vehicle for amateur pantomime and very cleverly distances itself from the Disney version of the title, which gives the show a fresh feel. However, the script is slightly unbalanced between an over long first half and a shorter second. The Director’s decision to dress most of the cast in modern clothes as if stumbling across the enchanted beast after a long period adds to this feel while retaining the essence of this classic love story.

Simply and cheaply set on stage with a good use of the aisles, in a prettily dressed auditorium to add variation and with a cast throwing themselves into the roles with gusto and pointing the gags well with their reactions, the performance easily engaged the full house audience and generated good responses.

The choreography especially from the delightful “Snowmen” team of four young dancers, who could have been used more, as well as the adoring Ensemble chasing after Danton, the villain of the piece, was very good. The stage never looked too crowded and in the well drilled routines such as “Hand Jive” and “Hit me baby one more time”.

Overall, a fresh modern funny version of this tale as old as time There was plenty of young talent on show who should be encouraged to build on the last 75 years of this society and give it a bright future. 

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