Beasts and Beauties
Beasts and Beauties
RETURNS TO HAMPSTEAD FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON
Retold by Carol Ann Duffy
Dramatised by Melly Still and Tim Supple
Directed by Melly Still and designed by Melly Still and Anna Fleischle with lighting by Chris Davey, sound by Matt McKenzie and music composed by Dave Price.
Thursday 1 December 2011–Saturday 7 January 2012
Following unanimous critical acclaim and with a clear mandate from the public, Carol Ann Duffy’s Beasts and Beauties, dramatised by Melly Still and TimSupple, returns to Hampstead Theatre Main House for the Festive Season.
Adapted by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Still recreates a grisly and gruesome, hilarious and hair-raisingly funny otherworld, carved from sixdark and dangerous fairy tales from across Europe. These beautifully realised uproarious stories have thrilled and chilled children and adults for generations. Encounter Bluebeard’s creepy castle with that irresistible locked room and the ludicrous vanity of a (naked) Emperor; see the horrible Beast who yearns for love and the farmer who thought he’d swap work for housekeeping so he could have a rest! Someone usually lives happily ever after in these enjoyably macabre tales, but not everyone, and not always
Returning to the cast are Jack Tarlton, who reprises his show stopping performance as the Emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes and as The Beast in Beauty and The Beast, Kelly Williams, Jason Thorpe, Justin Avoth and Rhiannon Harper-Rafferty, with new cast members Jake Harders and Michelle Bonnard joining the fun.
Melly Still is one of the UK’s leading theatre-makers with a hugely successful reputation for producing imaginative, visual theatre for all the family with such hits as Grimm Tales (Young Vic), More Grimm Tales (Young Vic) and Coram Boy at the National and Broadway. Other stage credits include Zaide (Sadler’s Wells), Nation (National) Rusalka (Glyndebourne), Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith), The Revenger’s Tragedy (National Theatre), Watership Down (Lyric Hammersmith) and Alice in Wonderland (Bristol Old Vic).
Award-winning British poet and playwright, Carol Ann Duffy's stage credits include The Magic Flute (Opera North), Grimm Tales and More Grimm Tales (Young Vic), Take My Husband (1982), Cavern of Dreams (1984), Little Women, Big Boys (1986). Her poetry collections include Rapture, The World Wife (1999), Standing Female Nude (1985), The Other Country and Mean Time. She was awarded an OBE in 1995, a CBE in 2001 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. Carol Ann Duffy was appointed Britain’s Poet Laureate in May 2009.
LISTING INFORMATION
Dates: 1 Decmber 2011 – 7 January 2012
Times: Evenings 7pm. Matinee times vary, please visit website or contact the theatre.
Prices: Previews (to 6 December) Adults £18 Children
Mon–Sat – Adults £24 Children £12 Families (4 People) £60 Concessions available
To Book: Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London, NW3 3EU Box Office: 020 7722 9301
Book Online: www.hampsteadtheatre.com