Beauty and the Beast

The main action follows the traditional story. Beauty's father stumbles upon the Beast's magic castle when lost in the forest. When he picks a rose, the Beast appears and refuses to let him go unless he promises to bring back the first thing he sets eyes on when he reaches home. Not surprisingly, that first thing is his favourite daughter, Beauty. Fulfilling his promise, he takes Beauty back to the Beast's castle. Beauty sets about civilizing the Beast, and they become attached to one another. By means of a magic mirror, however, she sees that her father is pining for her and has become gravely ill. She goes home to tend him, but, at home, she looks in the magic mirror again and sees that the Beast is now dying for love of her. She realizes that she does in fact love the Beast, returns to the castle, and her declaration of her love for him brings about his transformation back to the handsome prince he originally was.

There are traditional comic pantomime elements woven into and around this main story. That is to say that some elements of the main plot - Mr Stonybroke's [Beauty's father's] arrival at the castle, the Beast's relationship with the wicked witch, his mother, and the Beast's wooing of Beauty even are given a comic twist - but, hopefully, not at the expense of removing all the nervous thrills and the romance. The subplots are entirely comic and involve Beauty's rustic suitor, Jack, his cow, Pat, Myrtle the musical milkmaid and her overcivilized suitor Bertram Beauregard (who is the principal boy and also acts as between-scenes narrator), Beauty's ugly sisters Mercy and Charity, and the dame Mrs Scuttlebutt.

Bath Drama is one of Bath's longest established and most successful drama clubs, and has won many awards for its shows at the Rondo Theatre. Call Andrew Hill for details on 01225 338466