Based on the classic fairytale, "Beauty and the Beast", this pantomime rejoined our repertoire after an all-too-long absence of 25 years with an updated script. No doubt you'll be familiar with the original story, or at least the Disney adaptation, but here's the lowdown on our version:-
Hard times force Sir Oswald of Boswald and his family to move out of their luxury mansion to a small cottage in the country. A move that is met with disdain by his selfish, spoilt, greedy elder daughters Maisie & Daisie. However, his sister, the exuberant Aunt Maggie, is happy so long as she can continue to nurse her charges Eugene & Edgar, Sir Oswald's eldest and slightly dopey sons, even though they're now grown men! Tom, his shy youngest son, and his youngest daughter, kind, gentle and so fair of face that she has always been known as Beauty, are also content with the move - although Beauty does miss the rose garden of their former home.
One day, as he returns home from trying to regain some of his lost fortune, Sir Oswald seeks shelter from a wintry storm in an apparently deserted castle. As he departs the next morning Sir Oswald picks a rose from the castle's garden, which is miraculously immune from the winter weather, to take home to Beauty. Only then does the castle's only inhabitant appear - a fearsome, hideous, bad tempered creature known only as Beast, who demands that as punishment for stealing the rose and in return for sparing his life, Sir Oswald must send one of his daughters to live at the castle - forever!
Needless to say, it is the selfless Beauty rather than her selfish sisters who agrees to make the sacrifice and go to the castle. When she first arrives, she is scared of the hideous and brusque Beast, who none-the-less is courteous and takes good care of her. Later, when she falls asleep, Beauty dreams of a handsome prince who is being held captive and of a regal old lady.
Were Sir Oswald's fortunes restored?
Were Daisie & Maisie's yearning for rich husbands and luxurious living ever be fulfilled?
Did Aunt Maggie ever let Edgar and Eugene grow up?
Who was the scary, ugly Beast and why was he so unhappy?
Who were the handsome prince and lady of Beauty's dreams? And why was he being held prisoner?
Did Beauty ever see her beloved family again or regain her freedom?