Lucy Kirkwood

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot De Villeneuve

Lucy Kirkwood's delightful version of the classic fairytale, first seen in a production devised and directed by Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre for Christmas 2010. ‘I expect you have been told fairytales before. But you have never really heard a fairytale until you have heard it told by a real fairy.’ The theft of a single rose has monstrous consequences for Beauty and her father. Because this is no ordinary rose...and this is no ordinary fairytale. Narrated by a pair of mischievous fairies, a very helpful Rabbit, and a Thoughtsnatcher machine, this timeless story is sure to surprise, delight and enchant. A wild and twisted tale, full of exciting and intriguing challenges for drama groups wishing to stage their own production.

Beauty and the Beast

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve

Beauty and the Beast is a magical tale of love, understanding, and triumph. Late one night a merchant becomes lost in the woods and stumbles upon a seemingly deserted castle. Hungry and tired, he enters the castle and finds a feast laid out on a grand table. Finding no one else in the castle, he eats the food himself. In the morning as he leaves he finds a beautiful rose bush in the garden and picks a single flower for his daughter Belle. Suddenly a beast appears and tells him he must die for abusing his hospitality. The merchant explains that he only picked the rose for his daughter. The Beast makes a deal with him that he can take the rose and other riches back to his daughter but only if he agrees to return and does not tell his daughter of the deal. The merchant agrees and makes his way home. He is unable to keep this terrible secret from Belle and when she finds out she returns to the Castle in his place. This is a wonderfully enchanting story, from the opening Once Upon a Time until the final Happily Ever After. A story your children will cherish for years.

Nicole Vanderbilt

This is the first published version of Beauty and the Beast, written by the French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in the mid-18th century and translated by James Robinson Planche. It is a novel-length story intended for adult readers, addressing the issues of the marriage system of the day in which women had no right to choose their husband or to refuse to marry. There is also a wealth of rich back story as to how the Prince became cursed and revelations about Beauty's parentage, which fail to appear in subsequent versions of the now classic fairy tale.

Beauty and the Beast

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