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Rep produce a real beauty
Fairy Goody (Jenna Augen) makes a point to the Table Slave (Dan Willis) Sleeping Beauty Birmingham Rep Crescent Theatre ***** SLEEPING Beauty has its dark undertones with
human-eating ogres and man-eating thorns along with a baby-eating Queen
(there's lots of people eating) along with magic and wicked spells, but
apart from that it is all good fun and great entertainment –
unless you happen to be a donkey, goat, cat or rat. It has goodies and baddies, some Monty
Pythonesque humour, such as the Table Slave (Dan Willis) who has had his
head stuck through a table for the past 17 years, in an intriguing
telling of a traditional story which keeps you interested with plenty of
laughs along the way. Writer Rufus Norris has gone back more than 300
years to Charles Perrault's version of 1697 for the inspiration for this
wonderful production which is part of the Rep's Christmas double header. This is aimed at older children, seven and up,
while The Snowman, which opens at Symphony Hall on
December 16 provides a Christmas treat for a younger starting age. Our guide for the whole affair is Goody (Jenna
Augen) who appears to be a Yorkshire Fairy - aren't they all?
(sorry, as a Lancastrian I just couldn't let that one pass) – who also
has a magic related digestive problem which manifests itself in the
shape, or rather sounds and smells of a gastronomically expressive
bottom. All right she farts whenever she does a spell and
that is a surefire roll about laughing trigger for any small child – or
blokes up to the age of . . . well death really. We really
are simple souls at heart. Goody is a bit of a tatty old fairy with worn
battered wings but she does what she can to help out which is what got
her in trouble in the first place.
Long ago she did a favour for a childless king
(Gregory Gudgeon) and his haughty Queen (Elizabeth Marsh) conjuring up
not only an instant immaculate conception but (flash, bang) an eight
month pregnancy to boot which got her an invite as guest of honour to
the naming day. Except the invite was only from the king and he
was under the thumb of the Queen who put her foot down, probably a
pointed, very sharp stiletto, and said no fairy. But Goody turns up in
any case and after a bit of argy bargy with the royal matriarch lays a
spell on the baby Princess Beauty in a fit of pique ordaining that the
princess will prick her finger on a spindle before she is 16, sleep for
100 years and will only then be awakened by a kiss from a prince. And there you go, the plot is plotted. The production cleverly uses flashbacks as Goody
tells the tale to various princes in the hope they can awaken the
sleeping beauty and right the wrong she had done her. Sadly the Prince of Nerves (Nicholas Goode) was
eaten by the neighbourhood ogre (Jofre Alsina) while the Prince of
Nerds, (Tomm Coles) - and he truly was – was composted by the protective
thorns. All seemed lost until there appeared what seems
to be a Glaswegian Ogress (Moyo Akandé) disguised as a human, not that
successfully if one is honest, who popped up heavy with child and gives
birth to the half human/half ogre Prince (Ciarán Owens). So Goody is left with the problem of first getting the prince to kiss the sleeping princess beauty, (Alex Clatworthy), and when that goes well she then has the added problem that the happy couple marry and have two kids, probably have a Mondeo on the drive - the whole shooting match. Ahhh, you might say except the Queen is an
Ogress, remember? That leaves Goody to protect Beauty and the Prince and
their two children, imaginative puppets by Rachael Canning incidentally,
from the old royal personage who has her own version of the Glasgow kiss
which involves lots of love bites . . . and chewing and swallowing as
she eats her way through her nearest and dearest. But as in all good fairy stories it all sorts
itself out and everyone lives happily ever after - apart from the
donkey, goat, cat and rat (I can't explain - you really need to see it),
the Ogress and the Ogre and I suppose the two princes who never made it
through to the second act. The direction from Sarah Esdaile keeps things moving at a cracking pace while Etta Murfutt's choreography manages to control some big crowd scenes without the stage looking the Holte End. The King (Gregory Gudgeon) and Queen (Elizabeth Marsh) lose their daughter Beauty to Goody's sleeping spell The music from Catherine Jones had a mediaeval sound to it and as is becoming the norm these days the band was the cast. Actors have to multi task and play at least one instrument these days . . . and sing and dance . . . oh, and can you juggle or do magic? The design by Francis O'Connor, complemented by
Paul Pyant's clever lighting, cleverly utilises the auditorium to the
full with slides down both side aisles, ramps, trap doors in the stage
and a magical spinning wheel with its own hypnotic light display while
the costumes, like the music, gave a feel of centuries long gone by.
Mind you I suspect the thorns in their skintight outfits will be
watching what they eat for the next few weeks. An excellent cast, well directed and a cracking
script. What more could you ask It is magic. The baddies will not frighten horses or, more importantly, children yet there is enough to provide the darker, more sinister side every fairy story needs or how else can good triumph over evil as it always will. Kids, and their parents, will love it. Roger Clarke
**** IT was the windiest night of the New
Year when I popped into the Crescent Theatre with my grandchildren
to see this extraordinary production by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Company. But, after settling into our seats in the
auditorium, what did we get? Even more turbulence as scruffy fairy Goody
suffered an attack of flatulence each time she cast a spell. That's her
style in the story by Rufus Norris, based on Charles Perrault's original
tale. You could say there is a wind of change in the
much-loved children's fantasy about a Princess who pricks her finger and
is put to sleep for a hundred years by a malicious spell. But there is much more to this very clever show
than a noisy fairy, and it must be said that Jenna Augen is a real gem
as Fairy Goody. She is a definite star, amusing with her Yorkshire
accent and impressing with her singing voice. Definitely not bottom of
the class here. This show is for children over seven years old
because it can be very scary with a fearsome-looking roaring Ogre (Jofre
Alsina) and his blood-thirsty Ogress (Moyo Akande). One much younger
child, with her parents near the stage, spent quite some time howling. The set is superb, even magical, with trapdoors
on stage and long slides each side of the theatre down which some cast
members made unusual entries into the action. Smart puppets as well. In this story the Prince who reaches the castle
where Beauty (Alex Clatworthy) is in her long sleep doesn't like girls
and has to be encourage by Fairy Goody to deliver that vital kiss. Fine performances, too, from Gregory Gudgeon
(King) and Elizabeth Marsh (Queen), and how good it is to see so many of
the cast able to play musical instruments on stage, Directed by Sarah Esdaile, Sleeping Beauty - the
Rep's first Christmas production outside their normal home, during
construction work - runs to January 14. See it and hear it. Paul Marston
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