EntertainmentTheatre

Happily Ever After at Derby Theatre Review

4 November 2017

Reviewed by Nigel Chester

I was fortunate enough to find myself in the Studio of the Derby Theatre, an intimate space with comfortable seating, in the style of a lecture theatre. The floor was laid in a black and white checker board behind, bright pink walls, teal curtains and as part of the story large yellow framed pictures were added.

The stage was set for a fabulous fifty minutes of entertainment designed for an audience aged 5+ however there were several littler ones in our showing and they were rapt the entire time and didn’t move or speak, a testament to the fully absorbing entertainment in this contemporary love story.

The actors, three men and one woman played nine parts. Four princesses, two princes, 2 servants and one queen who in the manner of pantomime was played with aplomb by Bruno Mendes. The queen had the potential to be a scary figure for small children as she was large and very important however Mendes’ genial manner with little intimate waves ensured that this was not the case.

There are many aspects to ‘Happily Ever After’ that felt unique in the setting the fact that there were no spoken words, so the actors needed to use body language and facial expressions with greater exaggeration than is normally necessary. The music written for the show and available to buy on CD after the performance was an enormous help to setting the tone and mood.

The story is one that has made the core of fairy tales for hundreds of years, however the Brothers Grimm never quite had this one in the repertoire. The queen is desperate for her grown up son to take more responsibility and get married; there is a delightful scene where she is chasing him around the stage until she quite literally corners him in order to crown him. These scenes between mother and son were so full of love, Prince Berty then sat on his overlarge chair and sulked in the manner of a small child.

A great deal of the action was childlike in nature and the characters played with each other. I and many other members of the audience smiled from start to finish. I loved it all, the wonderful twist, the cartoon quality to the set and costume designs and that we were invited to have our photos taken in the large frames that were part of the screen giving access to the stage and the actors.

We left with such a wonderful feel-good feeling, if only every Saturday afternoon could be this much fun!

Rating: 4/5

For other shows at Derby Theatre visit www.derbytheatre.co.uk or call the box office on 01332 593939.

Derby Theatre, 15 Theatre Walk, St Peter’s Quarter, Derby, DE1 2NF | 01332 593939

 

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