‘Beauty and the Beast’, or ‘La Belle et la Bête’, is a story that was written almost three hundred years ago in France by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. This much-loved tale has been brought to life with this sensitive, but hilarious Limelight script, in this Suzanne Perry pantomime production at the Ellenbrook Theatre, 100 Main Street in Ellenbrook. The Ellenbrook Theatre Company is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, “oh no it isn’t” – “oh yes, it is!!” Ellenbrook produces some of the best pantomimes in WA, with excellent sets, beautiful costumes and a great cast of singers, comedians and dancers. This year they have expanded their season to 10 shows with two performances per day, 2.30 and 7.30, on the Saturdays and Sundays until 23rd December. You will get a warm welcome from front of house team member, Gillian Patton, but be warned, there are just a few tickets left. The programme was one of the most impressive that I have seen for a while (Sean Breadsell was programme photographer), with coloured thumbnail pictures of the cast and crew, combined with a good write up of each person.
The scenes were: The town square with a well and fountain, a baker’s shop, a bookshop (Dymocks), a central projection screen for scene enhancement, a house frontage, and a flower bower. The sets: Owen Davis who recently designed the contemporary – semi space-age – set for ‘Romeo and Juliet’ has given us another delightful, conventional mediaeval village. Owen was aided in the set construction by Andrew Fisher. The two biggest units rotated quickly and silently, to give a palace ballroom, and a baker’s shop interior. The high-quality art work was the work of Andrew Fisher and Rodney van Groningen. The lights dim and a video (produced by Yasmin Perry) introduces us to the storyline, and the importance of the rose losing its petals. The house technical manager was Mark Turnbull, and he operated Suzanne Perry’s well-considered, inventive and colourful lighting design and effects. The spotlight operators were Isobel Clare and Claire Lebrasse; often spotlight followers lag behind, or use the wrong sized aperture, but these ladies were both faultless. The sound engineer, Shane Larson and his audio assistant, Kaeman Larson, handled the sound and music cues perfectly, along with Yasmin Perry’s fun sound effects. With huge scenery flats, mounted on castors, and a myriad of unusual props, the backstage assistants Breannah Rigoli, Giordarna Rigoli, Ethan Rozario, Catherine Healdgrove, and Kirsty Wesemann worked tirelessly throughout the show.
‘Beauty and the Beast’, or ‘La Belle et la Bête’, is a story that was written almost three hundred years ago in France by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. This much-loved tale has been brought to life with this sensitive, but hilarious Limelight script, in this Suzanne Perry pantomime production at the Ellenbrook Theatre, 100 Main Street in Ellenbrook. The Ellenbrook Theatre Company is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, “oh no it isn’t” – “oh yes, it is!!” Ellenbrook produces some of the best pantomimes in WA, with excellent sets, beautiful costumes and a great cast of singers, comedians and dancers. This year they have expanded their season to 10 shows with two performances per day, 2.30 and 7.30, on the Saturdays and Sundays until 23rd December. You will get a warm welcome from front of house team member, Gillian Patton, but be warned, there are just a few tickets left. The programme was one of the most impressive that I have seen for a while (Sean Breadsell was programme photographer), with coloured thumbnail pictures of the cast and crew, combined with a good write up of each person. The scenes were: The town square with a well and fountain, a baker’s shop, a bookshop (Dymocks), a central projection screen for scene enhancement, a house frontage, and a flower bower. The sets: Owen Davis who recently designed the contemporary – semi space-age – set for ‘Romeo and Juliet’ has given us another delightful, conventional mediaeval village. Owen was aided in the set construction by Andrew Fisher. The two biggest units rotated quickly and silently, to give a palace ballroom, and a baker’s shop interior. The high-quality art work was the work of Andrew Fisher and Rodney van Groningen. The lights dim and a video (produced by Yasmin Perry) introduces us to the storyline, and the importance of the rose losing its petals. The house technical manager was Mark Turnbull, and he operated Suzanne Perry’s well-considered, inventive and colourful lighting design and effects. The spotlight operators were Isobel Clare and Claire Lebrasse; often spotlight followers lag behind, or use the wrong sized aperture, but these ladies were both faultless. The sound engineer, Shane Larson and his audio assistant, Kaeman Larson, handled the sound and music cues perfectly, along with Yasmin Perry’s fun sound effects. With huge scenery flats, mounted on castors, and a myriad of unusual props, the backstage assistants Breannah Rigoli, Giordarna Rigoli, Ethan Rozario, Catherine Healdgrove, and Kirsty Wesemann worked tirelessly throughout the show.
In the Town Square, Fairy Rose (Steph Hickey) peeps around the bookshop corner and tells us of the hard time that the baker, Mr Baguette (Adam Skellham) is having. Baguette’s assistant, Crouton (Ali McNamara) is feeling low and asks us all to welcome him every time he appears. The villagers (Jana Gardner, Sophia Healdgrove, Ethan Hounsham Lloyd, Toby Schinkel) are talking to the bakery workers (James Skellham, Joanne Skellham, Jasmin Pradhan and Kaitlin Pradhan).
Baguette’s beautiful daughter, Belle (Emily Schinkel) appears, and Crouton explains to the audience how very much in love he is with Belle, when along comes Gaston (Brendan Burnside, understudied by John Mondelo). Gaston is a good looking local, but he knows it and treats everyone with contempt. He walks up to Belle, and in his slimy manner demands a date. Belle has been brought up with good taste and refuses to even talk to him; however, Gaston has a posse of beautiful local girls constantly chasing him (Caitlin Holmes, Taylor Webley), along with the outrageous Dame Dolly Donut (Zachery Ozolins); but obnoxious Gaston is still determined to win Belle’s heart.
We have a brief visit from a superstar, the Artist formerly known as Prince (Ethan Rozario). However, Belle meets a handsome young man in the street, only to find he is Prince Louis (Ebony Ward). She falls in love, but later disappears. Witch Thorn (Meredith Corr, with creepy coloured contact lenses) has put a curse on the young man and turned him into a Beast. Boo hiss.
Belle’s two sisters, Nutella (Tim Ward) and Canderel (Peter White) are ugly, selfish and with absolutely no taste in clothes. Every day they demand a new outfit from their father, whilst all that Belle wants is a red rose. One day Belle’s father picks a bloom for Belle, not knowing that this rare flower is owned by the Beast (Peter Giles). The Beast calls for the guard (Natasha Holt) and Superhero ‘Thor’ (Damion Brown) to lock the old man in the dungeon. Baguette becomes ill, and the bumbling paramedics (Sylvia Guest, Lyndsey Turner) are called for.
The Beast tells the sick baker that if he can have Belle in exchange, he will not kill the rest of the family. Under the supervision of the Beast’s assistant, Lumiere (Chelsey Ward), Belle goes to the Beast’s castle through the forest, where the Werewolves (Therese Topliss or Kirsty Wesemann) live with their cubs (Kayden Skellham, Eva Durham, and Roman Cafini). Belle agrees to live with him. He is polite and gentle. The maid (Heather Burrett), the mechanical butler Cogsworth (Rohan Schinkel), Mrs ‘tea’ Potts (Rhonda Malkin) and young Chip (Annalise Schinkel) look after her.
Can Belle escape. Will Daisy, the sisters or Belle ever get married? And if so, to whom?
Director Tony Perry and his assistant director, Yasmin Perry gave us a pantomime that was hard to fault. Clear confident diction, genuine funny situations, slick timing, fast moving and action filled – well done. The makeup by Sylvia Guest was impressive, especially the Beast’s face. Claire Lebrasse was the hair stylist, and with beehive wigs had a challenge on her hands keeping them in place. The costumes, with over 50 performers to dress, ranged from the youngsters’ butterfly wings to the sumptuous gowns, all were fabulous. The cast were skilled at audience interaction, drawing the usual ‘behind you’, or ‘oh no you didn’t’ comments. There was an obligatory slapstick scene, that actually worked. The musical backing tracks, which were supplied by the UK Limelight Company, were lively and catchy and possibly one of the best pre-recorded scores I have heard. One problem is that the singers must sing in the key supplied, whereas with live music the musical director can change the key and pace to suit the performer. This means that the soloists have to be adaptable. In this show ALL the lead singers were amazing, most have had specialised vocal training and Belle (Emily) is a lead in the highly respected UWA Operatic Society. With pantomimes, there are so many theatre skills required for the performance to be successful, from singing, dancing, comedy, tongue-in-cheek drama and audience interaction. I know this sounds like the bare necessities but trust me, few shows with youngsters manage. Rarely do pantos meet all these requirements and yet Ellenbrook have, year after year, achieved the top standard, giving us an excellent ‘British-style’ panto with all the important factors. I often dancers stagger around the stage with the pained expression of ‘I don’t really want to be here’, or ‘I wish the others would not move so quickly’, but this show had fabulous dancing teams, full of smiles, great synchronised movements, full body language and in perfect time to the music. Well done to all the dancers, Hannah Sorensen, Sheridan Spencer, Mia Yeatman, Katherine ‘Katy’ Schinkel, Bree Skellham, Emily Saxton, Leoni Robbins, Ruby-Annabelle Robbins, Evie Lake, Isabella Gethin, Emily Copley and Lexi Brindley. Superb. The choreography showed the immense amount of rehearsal under senior choreographer Max Hughes, who was assisted by Emily Schinkel. Even the youngest child, and the ages ranged from 8 to 14, had total confidence as they were guided by the senior dancers and acrobats Letisha O’Neill and Paris Rozario. It was a joy to watch a young troupe with such fine stage skills. I travelled an hour each way to see this show, and every second of the show was well worth it. Very few tickets left but try, you might be lucky.