Beauty and the Beast at The Storyhouse Chester Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by H Chan
I was invited as a guest to watch the Beauty and the Beast at the Storyhouse in Chester. It is a lovely community theatre with a large charitable side. Inside the accessible building, you will find some really genuine and helpful staff, a bar and restaurant, a library and a cinema. The whole place had a fantastic atmosphere, and was really easy to get around. I watched the show with my husband and three children. My middle daughter is a wheelchair user and we had no trouble at all getting around the building, and the view from our seats was good. There were a few bits we missed due to them being slightly below and to the right of our seats, but it was very minimal. There were also two screens showing subtitles, which I thought was a really thoughtful way to make the show more accessible.
The story, written by Anne Odeke, and directed by John Young, takes the usual tale of Beauty and the Beast and flips the script. Aside from the name Belle, and the fact that the beast was cursed and lives in a castle, everything was unpredictable and completely random in places. Some scenes were absolutely crackers, but in the best kind of way. We had no idea what was going to happen next, nor where the story was going. This helped to keep it engaging and not the usual kind of panto. I really loved it, and so did the children.
In most adaptations of Beauty and the Beast, Belle is locked in the dungeon and later released where she befriends and falls for the cursed prince. This version keeps Belle, the cursed beast and the castle, but the rest was unguessable from the start.
It begins in a perfect and picturesque village, where Belle feels like a disappointment and the man who is pursuing her, Pierre, played by Panav Viswanathan, was hilarious and flamboyant! I absolutely loved his sparkly hobby horse and the whole Pink Pony Club scene. I have no idea what they were thinking when this was written, but it was gold! Belle was played by Katarina Zofia. She was a perfect fit for Belle, and gave some very powerful and inclusive messages about changes needed in their society. Daniel Bowskill, the Beast, gave a very moving performance of Creep that had everyone glued to the stage. I think it was the one scene which really showed how lovely the beast was, he definitely delivered the emotion.
The cast was small, which gave it a more family feeling to it and the children liked that they didn’t have too many people to remember. I particularly liked that they kept in some of the more traditional aspects of panto, but none of it was overdone or tired. Audience participation was hilarious. The back and forth between Tom Richardson who played Marcel and Pascal, and Tom Lloyd, Grégoire and the Judge, had the children giggling away, especially when Tom had to keep changing costumes!
Caitlin Drake, Amélie, had a very strong self-love message which I loved. I wasn’t sure about the need for her character at first but after a couple of scenes it was clear that she had a huge purpose in the show and I was glad that they didn’t go down the usual route of lovestruck best-friend Buttons type character. Tom Pigram playing Faby, and Poppy Afolabi who played René were great too and kept the show moving forwards.
My personal favourites were the fairies! I loved Lavender, played by Emmy Stonelake and her rhymes and silliness. The villain of the show was stroppy, misunderstood and actually quite scary fairy Nightshade, was played by Miriam O’Brien. Miriam had quite a few good songs which showcased her vocal skills but also her acting. I won’t ruin it by giving anything away but I did wonder if the writer had been reading romantasy novels. There was a very strong need for control put across by her character which really resonates with many. I think this is what made her so scary.
The ensemble, made up of members of House of Dance definitely deserve a mention as they were fantastic.
The show was packed with jokes, current songs and some strong underlying messages. It wasn’t the usual slapstick, or for the sake of it panto but there was something for everyone. I did read a few negative comments about the show before I went, but I have to say that the cast nailed what they were trying to portray and I don’t agree with the negative comments in the slightest. The children loved it, even the bits that were a bit cringe (comedy cringe of course). We gave it 5 out of 5 stars. If you’re expecting the usual story and characters, then this isn’t it. If you’re expecting to smile, laugh and really understand the characters all the way through, then this is it!
You can find tickets here https://www.storyhouse.com/whats-on/beauty-and-the-beast/ and prices range from £15 to £46.50. The show is running until Jan 4th.
Rating: 5/5