Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast [1] is a traditional fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740. The tale has been notably adapted for screen, stage, prose, and television over the years.

Translations and adaptations

Adapted as a pantomime, the libretto in part by St John Knight.

A children's play (1951) by British actor and playwright Nicholas Stuart Gray (1922-1981).

Performance history in South Africa

1857: Produced by Sefton Parry in his Cape Town theatre 1857, possibly the first English pantomime presented in full in South Africa, though Parry himself claimed this distinction for Babes in the Wood (1858 - qv) For one performance only.

After that there have been numerous local performances of the tale. Some of them are:

1878: Performed in the Athenaeum Theatre, Cape Town by Baby Benson pantomime company in association with the Dramatic Recital Society ,

1951: Presented by the UCT Dramatic Society at the Little Theatre August 1951, directed by Leonard Schach and starring Peter Lamsley. Decor by Cecil Pym, costumes by Doreen Graves.

1961: A Children's Theatre production directed by Anthony Farmer.

1967: Presented by PACT, 1967, with Don Lamprecht as Hodge.

1978: A production by Compass Productions, using the 1951 text by Nicholas Stuart Gray and directed by Helen Houghton at The Space (Cape Town), with James Andrews, Lyn Banner, Paul Bosman, Nicholas Fine, Cindy Just, Judith Krummeck and Corinne Willoughby. (Designs by René Hermanus, sound and lighting by Tony Twine and Vivian Bickford as Stage Manager)

Sources

Wikipedia [2].

Inskip, 1977.

Astbury 1979.

Children's Theatre production: Tucker, 1997. 156.

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