By Dave
Link: https://bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/living-spits-beauty-and-the-beast-catch-up
Available until: 9th
January
Warning: Contains strong language,
innuendo and general filth. 12+
Living Spit’s Beauty and the Beast
is a modern re-telling of the story. Belle and her father live in a small
village in France and everything seems great but her dad has a secret – he owes
the Beast. As payment, Belle (not her real name) has to go and stay with
the Beast. You probably know how the rest goes.
Howard Coggins and Stu McLoughlin have re-written it as a comedy, which they also star in. Director Craig Edwards allows them to go at a fast pace and although there is a feeling that the dialogue might go racing off and leave the audience behind, this never happens. We’re with them for the full journey (apart from when the site decided to log me out. I’m sure it’s not the Bristol Old Vic’s fault but if you do have this problem, refreshing and logging in again will sort it out. It won’t take you back to where you were when the video stopped but if you make a note of that before you refresh, you can easily get back to the same place again).
They are the only two actors, with
Howard playing the Beast and Belle’s father, and Stu wearing a dress as Belle.
No further attempt is made make him look like a girl but for me, there are two reasons
why that works. First, if a girl wants to look like a boy, she should go right
ahead because there’s nothing wrong with that. Or you can just see it as a
typical panto story – you can’t have a panto without a dame and if the dame also
happens to be the princess, that’s fine with me too.
There is a lot of fast-paced dialogue
between Belle and the Beast. It’s fast and witty and as the warning says, this
is not one for the kids. A lot of it will go over their heads, but there are a
few things you don’t want them either repeating or asking you to explain to
them. There is also some music, much of it written by Howard and Stu – they’ve
written great tunes, very funny lyrics, and their singing and instrumental
skills are really very good.
But although it’s funny, it also has
its moving moments. Stu is opinionated and really quite demanding as Belle
(though he’s so funny, you can’t help liking her) but he can also bring emotion
into the story where necessary and for such a funny, crazy play, it’s
surprisingly sweet.
Howard does well as both Belle’s
father and the Beast. The characters are very different and the script cleverly
gets around the moments where you might expect to see the two characters at the
same time. Belle’s father is a silly but likeable man who seems much older than
the Beast, despite a very limited costume change – it’s all in the acting. As
the Beast, he is kind and accommodating, but very capable of taking Belle on in
a battle of wills when he wants to.
It’s not your typical pantomime and
it’s definitely not your typical Beauty and the Beast but it’s fun and
it has a central message which is really important.
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