Theatre / Ballet
Review: Beauty and the Beast, Hippodrome
Beauty and the Beast is a good, old-fashioned storybook fantasy: the classic “tale as old as time” as Angela Lansbury sang it in the Disney version.
Love conquers all, of course, in David Bintley’s mysterious and magical production, which captures the intriguing – but often sinister – darkness of the original 18th-century fable. It starts as a scary tale but ends as a fairy tale.
It’s a contemporary, strongly gothic take on the classic and tells the story of Belle (Delia Mathews), who is forced by her father and malicious sisters to live with the Beast (Tyrone Singleton), cursed to spend eternity in a fantastical castle surrounded, perhaps haunted, by the animals he once cruelly hunted.
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Their relationship develops, yet she refuses his marriage proposals until she is whisked away by her conniving sisters, unable to return to the castle, leaving the Beast to weaken and almost die from a broken heart. Finally, she escapes and confesses her deep love for her captor which transforms him into a handsome prince. It’s a classic Stockholm Syndrome storyline, and none the worse for that.
But this production is so much more than the plot. It’s an enchanting ballet of inner beauty, with transformations, wild waltzes, soaring birds, a sumptuous score and a complex relationship between Belle and the Beast that is at first terrifying, but ultimately becomes serene and beautiful.
David Bintley has been the Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet for more than 20 years and before that was a dancer and choreographer who trained with Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton. At 16 he entered the Royal Ballet’s Upper School where he found himself “next in the canteen queue with Rudolf Nureyev”.
Bintley`s production is now 16 years old, but still feels very modern. The sets and lighting open like pages in a children’s storybook to reveal characters in lush, extravagant locations and costumes. The ball sequence opens with a full stage of whirling dancers gorgeously dressed, yet still (that word again) sinister rather than joyous. It’s almost a dance of the dead.
But then at other times there are hugely comic sequences, such as the moment when Monsieur Cochon (complete with pig’s nose) tries to to decide which of Belle’s sisters to marry. He dances with an old woman almost bent double with age. It`s an enchanting moment that wins great laughter and applause.
A beautiful ballet – and a wonderfully satisfying and enjoyable piece of theatre.
Beauty and the Beast continues at the Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday, May 4. For more info and to buy tickets, visit https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/birmingham-royal-ballet-beauty-and-the-beast/bristol-hippodrome/
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