The Beauty and The Beast

Name: What to do in Barcelona: Theatre: The Beauty and The Beast
Start: 2013-06-14T20:00:00
End: 2013-06-16T20:00:00
Location: Teatre Tantarantana

Jun 14, 2013 to Jun 16, 2013

Teatre Tantarantana C/de les Flors 22, 08001 Barcelona

May 23, 2013

12:00 AM

The Beauty and The Beast

"On a stormy night in a medieval kingdom, a prince as malevolent as he is handsome goads a lost old woman who seeks shelter in his castle. Unbeknownst to Prince Edmund, the crooked crone before him is a dark sorceress in disguise who places a curse upon him and his servants as punishment for his cruelty. Deformed and twisted beyond recognition, he needs to learn to love and be loved in return to lift the horrific curse..."

The English Drama Company is the professional branch of the English Drama School, which offers trainings and up to five high-quality shows per year.

They are now presenting an updated version of the classic story The Beauty and the Beast, written, produced and directed by Julian Wickham. The audience will get transported to a fantasy world of monsters, magic, forests and castles. A Gothic horror story for adults only.

June 14th-16th at 8pm (doors and bar open at 7.30pm). Please note this play will be performed at the Teatre Tantarantana (not the EDC's usual venue) in Carrer de les Flors 22.

This show is suitable only for persons aged 16 and over.

Tickets are €15 on the door, or €12 by purchasing online here.

Info

LocationTeatre Tantarantana C/de les Flors 22, 08001 Barcelona

Event Type Theatre

Date & Time Jun 14, 2013 8:00 PM to Jun 16, 2013 8:00 PM

Comments (1)

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Opening Night Review

Outrageously offensive!

Without a doubt, English Drama School's rendition of Beauty and the Beast was the sloppiest waste of money I've witnessed in Barcelona. This cast of (what must be) acting students put on a full-priced production (€15) and will henceforth be reviewed against that standard.

Despite three well-acted performances by Julian Wickham as the Beast, Olivia Jane Skinner as Belle, and Sebastian Ghandchi as Avenant, this overlong show was both difficult to watch and to understand. The actors had definitely memorized their scripts, word for disgusting word (more on that later), but delivered their lines with little feeling or purpose, at one point causing uncontrollable giggles from a trio of ladies who rightfully left at intermission. That these ladies left at the intermission, 95 minutes into this two and a half hour play, was most likely due to the show's heavy reliance on misogyny and rape to demonstrate the evil of several characters, and the dire stakes for Belle and her family. While the descriptions of vile acts were evocative and shocking, they were jarring and unnecessary. I'm not surprised that 5 women, along with 1 man, (out of 15 in attendance) failed to return for the second act after hearing in gory detail how the Beast has a trophy room full of severed vulvas and how, because the curse has made his penis too large, he must penetrate victims with his sword first. I'm shocked that the women in the cast stayed around until the opening.

Offensive script aside, the show did have some redeeming qualities. The costumes were excellent, portraying the Feudal European setting. It’s a shame that their effect was broken in the final scene when, (spoiler to come) after several safely performed sword fights, Belle's father enters to shoot the Beast with a revolver. Of the many technical difficulties that the show had, like a fog machine that produced more noise than mist, the gravest offence was the lack of front lighting. My sympathies to the poor makeup artist who was at pains to make the Beast and his two servants up like they were rotting and disfigured from the 200 year old curse; the audience only saw this work when the house lights went up at the curtain call.

If this show had been billed as a student production with a price tag of €5, almost everything (despite the vulgar script) would be forgiven. But as the flagship production of the English Drama Theatre, which one couple attended because it was the first Google result when searching for English theatre in Barcelona, this was an expensive slap in the face. It was the most poorly directed loss of an evening I've paid to endure here. I hope that I never have a friend who joins a play at this theatre, forcing me to return and shell out for pretentious garbage.

Moved to Words more than 7 years ago

The Beauty and The Beast

The Beauty and The Beast

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