Beauty and the Beast

The tradition of a winter Panto is quintessentially British, and thanks to Disney the story of Beauty and the Beast has reached a new generation of children who have fallen in love with the story of Belle and her Beast. In this version though, Belle has a sister called Smelle, and the cast of characters include some delightful odd bods.

The space was fully maximised with the set painted with houses and different scenes folding out on flats very cleverly. There were 3 entrances each side between flats which gave a lovely 3D effect too. The scene changes, despite being warned that there had been illness and could take a long time, were slick and quick which was great. Good use was made of the auditorium entrances as well, so characters came in talking from behind the audience which was a super way of involving everyone in the story and making the audience all part of it.

Jokes in panto can be hit or miss but these jokes were actually great and some were satisfyingly clever, including the accountant joke: my accountant says there are three types of people, those who can count and those that can’t. There were some surprisingly risqué jokes, some said by younger cast members too, which seemed a little odd in a family show. There were some nice set pieces including the “I know you know” bit which was done well. Some of the funnies came from the appearance of people on stage which was lovely, and some physical comedy. The slow motion running towards each other having instantly fallen in love was a lovely touch and very funny indeed. The modern references, for example talking about Harry Styles; and uses of mobile phones was a nice up to date addition.

The costumes were super: Smelle’s outfits and makeup and ever extending additions of skirt layers each time she appeared was so funny. The beast makeup was very effective, and the coloured wigs for Molly the Dame that kept changing were great. The shark feet slippers were hilarious and almost deserved their own applause. Evil Edna’s makeup was also particularly effective.

Sarah Thomas as the narrator role of the good fairy held everything together with sweetness, Christine Linden-Smith was satisfyingly evil as her foil Edna. The chorus of little ones and young people looked like they were really enjoying it and they all knew where they were going and spoke their lines. It’s a wonderfully inclusive approach to the chorus with obvious different ability levels but none of that mattered – it was lovely. It’s so good to see a society embracing the people’s differences.

There were some lovely moments, such as the Dame giving out sweets to most of the audience, shooting water pistols out into the audience resulting in delighted laughter, mixtures of local references which garnered knowing chuckles and the changing from the Beast back into the Prince at the end was done very well indeed. Of course the Beast couldn’t come for a bow at the end of the show but then a man (Mason Schaak) appeared sweeping the stage, with a tell-tale tail swishing, so he got his own applause then. Nicely done!

What sets this Panto apart was Anthony Barden as Bertie: Belle’s Dad; and Steve Mills as Molly the Dame and their joint ability to improvise and deal with the audience and whatever the audience came up with. It was quite inspiring the effective and funny way they dealt with heckling from children and their picking on members of the audience for various things including flirtation. They are clearly very experienced with the result that the audience felt relaxed and safe with everything that was going on.

The surprising thing was the sparseness of music, usually a panto is filled with it – yet this show was exactly the right length. There was the set piece of the audience sing along but very little else. Nevertheless it really was a very well done production that left everyone with smiles having laughed most of the way through it. Congratulations to everyone involved in a really delightful production.

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