Showing @ Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 31 Dec
The cosmetic age truly has ruined our sense of beauty hasn’t it? Digital editing hasn’t helped either mind, with photo-glossing and touch-ups pushing further towards a warped sense of perfection. It’s a good job that the evil witch Crackjaw (Angela Clerkin) isn’t so vain, as she’s out to transform young men into beasts (Andrew Rothney) and ruin everyone’s Christmas. So will Beauty (Ruth Milne) engage in a bit of bestiality to prove that appearances aren’t everything? Not sure if she’s that open-minded.
Director Neil Murray throws us into the world of mystery and magic with his sundrenched stage, reaching out into the audience as plentiful green foliage hangs across the archways. Nicola Roy and Karen Traynor excel as Beauty’s wicked sisters, as does Clerkin as the scheming witch, with a large slice of credit owed to Murray for his elaborate Beast costume (almost what Prince would look like if he found himself transformed). Stuart Paterson’s script is a bit jarring at times however, the scenes between Beauty and the Beast suffering the most, which ruins the speedy flow of Murray’s production. Thankfully though, Paterson’s script is a faithful adaptation of the original fairytale (now ruined by Disney’s indulgent film version): drenched in enchantment and playfulness, yet failing to truly take us into that spellbinding world.