Irish Timeswriters review Beauty and the Beastat the Cork Opera House, New Kidin the Old Museum Arts Centre and To Be Sureat the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
Beauty and the Beast, Cork Opera House
As a staged recreation of the Disney cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast, this UK Productions presentation replaces the charm and subtleties of the original with pyrotechnical bravura. Thus the lighting design by David Howe and the costumes by Elizabeth Dennis create the visual splendour, which is supported by an excellent chorus and dance-team. However, the singers sometimes have to pitch themselves to screaming point in order to avoid total elimination by the orchestra, under musical director Geoffrey Tinniswood, and they don't all succeed.
The old story has been pared back to its most basic themes - don't judge a book by its cover, home is where the heart is - and perhaps a more fearsome beastliness would have added some depth to the moral of loyalty, compassion and redemption, which is at the heart of the legend. Instead, it is characters such as the clock, candelabra and teapot (with the addition on opening night of Lorcan Wiseman as Chip) who carry the message of de-humanisation as they await their transformation into the objects they represented in life.
The pleasures of a large and very accomplished cast are enhanced by winning individual performances from, most prominently, Ben Harlow as the villain Gaston and, most acrobatically, by Mark Connell as his sidekick (literally) Lefou. It is unfair to be selective as the complete company achieves an overall level of energy and commitment, and although musically unenterprising (with a score by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice), there is one big show-stopper, Be My Guest, which gives silver service a whole new meaning. This sequence also emphasises the way in which Charles Camm's design merges set projection with stage settings, a device which creates some enchanting vistas in a show that has many appealing moments. Chief among these is the tenderness with which Ashley Oliver as Beauty and Matthew Cammelle as the Beast interpret roles integral to the book by Linda Woolverton.
As directed and choreographed by Alison Pollard, however, the episodic narrative takes a few noticeable short cuts and the dramatic triumph of the ending is allowed escape entirely. - Mary Leland
Runs until March 24
New Kid, Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast
It's pretty tough for a kid to be uprooted from home, school and mates when his or her parents decide to move to a new neighbourhood. But imagine how much worse it is when circumstances dictate that you go to live in another land, where you stand out like a sore thumb and don't even speak the same language. Nick is an 11-year-old boy from a faraway country, known as the Homeland, who has been pitched into a strange place called Northern Ireland.
Back home, his father was a teacher, but he now works at a menial job to bring in some money; his mother shuts herself away in their shabby house, clinging on to the traditions and language of the old country and becoming increasingly isolated. Meanwhile, Nick has to endure the terrors of the school playground, where the bullies have a field day poking fun at him for smelling funny, talking funny, looking funny and being a complete freak.
Canadian writer Dennis Foon's succinct but powerful little play is crisply directed for Replay by Richard Croxford and beautifully acted by Neal McWilliams as Nick, Antoinette Morrelli as Mum, and Julie Maxwell and Gerard McCabe as schoolmates Mench and Mug.
In an inspired piece of theatrical daring, the immigrant family speaks Northern Ireland English, while Mench and Mug squabble and joke and carry on in a strange, glottal non-language, in which Nick eventually becomes fluent.
Inspired by the writer's experience of working in a Vancouver school, where the kids spoke 42 different languages, it turns an unflinching eye onto the world of the new kid and, in partnership with the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, the play throws down a challenge to the young generation of a changing society, blighted by incidents of racism and discrimination. - Jane Coyle
Runs until tomorrow, and then at the Waterside Theatre, Derry on March 21
To Be Sure, Lyric Theatre, Belfast
As writer and director of this new political farce, Tim Loane has taken on a double challenge, which he tackles with his customary head-down, hands-on attitude.
The setting is Good Friday 2007 in Belfast, where the Power family plays out its surreal version of the Easter Rising. Joseph (Paddy Jenkins) and Marian (Nuala McKeever) Power's respective contribution and devotion to the armed struggle of the past have a direct bearing on the way they view the ideological struggle of the present. Meanwhile, their three children represent a standard modern mix of young thug (Martin McCann), impressionable dimwit (Michael Condron) and liberal-thinking student (Rachel Tucker).
The neat timing of the premiere, coinciding with the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, adds to the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the occasion.
As he did with the award-winning Caught Red Handed, Loane has given himself the dramatically risky task of wrapping manic, sometimes grisly slapstick around a serious conversation. At its heart is the dilemma facing people, who pledged allegiance - and, in many cases, life - to the cause of Irish unity, only to be asked now to support a very different kind of political settlement. But amid all the laughter, its delivery, in the context of a warring, dysfunctional family, is skewed by McKeever's domineering dissident Marion and blurred by what one of the characters describes as "a long and horribly convoluted plot".
The rest of the cast perform as a hard-working, focused ensemble, while the driving force is provided by the versatile Dan Gordon, who morphs with incredible speed and chutzpah into a string of outrageous, overblown characters.
Now that this logistically complex show is up and running, it's time to cut the script and balance the performances. - Jane Coyle
Runs until March 31
