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Theatre: Beauty And The Beast

Beautiful Beast in the spirit of Grimm brothers' moral intent

Beauty And The Beast

West Yorkshire Playhouse/Touring

4 Stars

When the Brothers Grimm wrote Beauty And The Beast they probably didn't realise that two centuries later it would be reinterpreted with simulated oral sex using split melons and bananas.

It's doubtful whether they would have approved and yet OneOfUs's adult version of the fairytale, a co-production with Improbable, is truly within its moral heart of acceptance.

Disabled actor Mat Fraser and former Miss Exotic World Julie Atlas Muz update the fabled romance between beastly and beautiful characters, turning it into a magical sexual journey that contains nudity and explicit scenes.

The story unfolds in a post-Victorian burlesque setting, where two puppeteers operate a complex selection of wood cut-style slides on a projector.

The perfect timing of Johnny Dixon and Jess Mabel Jones as they swap swatches of fabric and bowls of soup in time to menacing music appears effortlessly comedic yet it's driven by the work ethic of the production directed by Phelim McDermott.

Verging on premeditated chaos, quick-witted improvisation is absorbed into the action when Jones, as one of Beauty's sisters, loses one of her prosthetic limbs.

Scooped up by Fraser, he breaks out of character to explain how his parents took him to hospital to select such "skins" as a child.

It's a technique repeated throughout the show, blurring the boundary between autobiography and fantasy in a manner that never feels forced, deliberately provocative or preachy.

Thus the multilayered narrative can absorb shadow play, song, dance dance and faux erotica yet still remain true to the fairytale's moral of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

Tours nationally until December 21, details: www.improbable.co.uk.

Susan Darlington

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