Oxford's Fantastique French Frolics
The Tale of the Beauty and the Tail of the Beast: Creation Theatre Company at the North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford until January 7. Review by Jon Lewis and Hannah Lewis (aged 11).
Natasha Rickman’s enchanting new production of Northern Irish writer-composer Paul Boyd’s 2009 Lyric Theatre Belfast show The Tale of the Beauty and the Tail of the Beast for Creation Theatre is a must-see for the holidays. Boyd’s witty poetry with its clever internal rhyme system makes every word count, whilst the jolly hurdy-gurdy style tunes are foot-tappingly entertaining. Significantly, this is the first play made with Creation’s new rep company, an innovation that offers five actors a two-year contract providing financial stability in troubled times.
The story begins with scenes of French money-starved eighteenth-century travelling players rehearsing a play in a small French town led by the overoptimistic M. Affable (Nicholas Osmond, doubling as Beauty’s harried father, Pierre). Their star turn is the tipsy diva Gabrielle (Anna Tolputt, a national treasure for her work in pantomimes over the years, who also plays Beauty’s vain sister Mimi, and the show’s baddie, Grizelda the Grim) who is never short of a naughty double entendre.
When an actor goes missing Affable turns to gofer Barbot (Kofi Dennis) to play the Beast where he is hilariously unwilling to kiss the boozy Gabrielle during a scene. The sweet-voiced Delvene Pitt plays actress Suzanne and her lead character, Beauty while Emily Woodward completes the cast as the actress Michelle, and her characters, Beauty’s mean sister Didi, and the good fairy, Evadne the Just. It’s a wonderful seasonal small-scale spectacular – a winter warmer for all the family to enjoy.
Hannah says: I liked it because it was very energetic and comedic. I loved the parts where the cast burst into song and that no one really knew what was going on at the beginning. My favourite character was the wicked witch because she took everything very seriously and loved to spread chaos across the land. Even though at the start they wanted to move onto the next town because they hated this one, they learned not to judge a book by its cover - so sentimental. I loved how all the different characters were played by only five actors, achieving a lot, and that is very inspiring.
