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Wee liberties: Beauty and The Beast: A Horny Love Story at Charing Cross Theatre

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It may not be a tale as old as time, but it’s still the same old story, almost, with Beauty and the Beast: A Horny Love Story currently playing at the Charing Cross Theatre .  As the title suggests, this is not family holiday entertainment, but neither is it all gay gore. And a surprisingly large number of clever gags, a gorgeous-looking production, costumes, and an ensemble make for a classy night out with the occasional lashing of sluttiness.  It’s been a while since I have seen an adults-only panto. Like many things at the theatre—ticket prices, opening nights, age of social media influencers—things have changed. Happily, things have changed for the better here. The show focuses on assembling an excellent cast. Elaborate costumes by Robert Draper and David Shields’ set pieces help give this adult panto a touch of class. There are the usual lewd jokes and a quick flash of buttocks.   The setting of the story is in the northernmost village of Scotland, Lickmanochers. Not...

Beautiful at the ballet: No Place For A Woman @Theatre503


No Place For a Woman combines music, movemement and storytelling to present a haunting tale on human emotions and the desire to survive. And that despite it all, everything really is beautiful at the ballet. It's currently at Theatre 503.

Written by Cordelia O'Neil, this two-hander brings out the fine detail of two women's lives that are intertwined during conflict. It is set in Poland at the end of the Second World War, but there is something universal about the themes that make you feel as if it could be any time or place during conflict.

The premise is that as allied forces are interviewing the two women a story emerges. The wife of a prison camp commandant was throwing a party and she asks her husband to get champagne. But instead he brings home a ballet dancer from the camp. And they keep her.


The two women, Annie (Ruth Gemmell), and Isabella (Emma Paetz), recount what happens next. Paetz has a survivors instinct and its clear she will do whatever it takes to stay alive. Gemmell unravels in her isolation and desperation to cling to her lonely aristocratic life. Everything seems a little hazy in their recollections and justifications for their actions. But in the fog of war anything is possible.

It's given emotion weight with underscoring by Elliott Rennie on a cello, concealed by a gauze. Sarah Readman’s lighting also splits the stage in half with a line of white light. The effect is to differentiate the sides the two women are on. But during war, it sometimes hard to tell which side people are on.

A beautiful looking production full of emotion and substance. Directed by Kate Budgen, No Place For A Woman is at Theatre 503 until 27 May.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎



Photos by Jack Sain


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