tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/beauty-and-the-beast-15424/articles
Beauty and the Beast – The Conversation
2022-10-13T10:59:42Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192421
2022-10-13T10:59:42Z
2022-10-13T10:59:42Z
Angela Lansbury – a storied career sure to touch people for years to come
<p>I never met Angela Lansbury, but she was one of those icons that felt like a trusted friend and family member. Every Sunday evening, I devoured Jessica Fletcher’s activities in Murder, She Wrote – <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086765/">catching the bad guys and saving another poor victim from eternal damnation</a>. The younger generation discovered her as Mrs Potts in Disney’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101414/">Beauty and the Beast</a> and more recently as the balloon seller in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5028340/?ref_=fn_al_tt_0">Mary Poppins returns</a> (<a href="https://variety.com/2018/film/awards/mary-poppins-returns-julie-andrews-1203065856/">a role created as a cameo appearance for Julie Andrews, who turned it down so attention was not taken away from Emily Blunt</a>). Disney considered Lansbury for the original casting of Mary Poppins, so it is fitting that one of her last film appearances return full circle to her earlier Hollywood career.</p>
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<p>Lansbury, who died on October 11 2022, was a constant presence in film, stage and TV for nearly 70 years. She was one of the original Hollywood greats from the silver screen, but she did not fade into obscurity; she worked far longer and harder than many of the starlets of her age, who said no to unbecoming roles.</p>
<p>Dame Angela Lansbury was an icon of the stage and screen, but beneath this strong and lovable figure is a story filled with highs and lows that fuelled her talent and perseverance. </p>
<h2>A star of the silver screen</h2>
<p>Born in 1925 in London to Irish actress Moyna Macgill and politician Edgar Lansbury, the first experience to shape her life came at the age of nine when her father died of stomach cancer, leaving a gaping hole in Lansbury’s life. Finding refuge in the cinema as her interest in school waned, she fell in love with the movies and was able to pursue acting when the family moved to the US in 1940 to escape the Blitz. </p>
<p>Lansbury gained employment at the movie studio MGM, taking on minor roles in many major films, but more importantly, socialised in the world of acting. In 1944, she befriended John Van Druten the scriptwriter for <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036855/">Gaslight</a>, a tale of psychological manipulation (where the term “<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-gaslighting-mean-107888">gaslighting</a>” derives from), and was subsequently cast in the role of maid Nancy alongside Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. The film led to her first Oscar nomination. </p>
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<p>Her socialising continued and in 1945 she met and married her hero, actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0188673/bio">Richard Cromwell</a>. The marriage lasted all but a year; she was one of the last people to know he was gay. In 1946 she met British actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7151929/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_trv_sm#trivia">Peter Shaw</a>, who she famously told after a screentest: “Darling, I love you very much, but an actor you aren’t.” He subsequently left the profession, eventually turning to casting and production. The couple were married in 1949 until his death 54 years later.</p>
<p>Lansbury continued her film career, playing, as she described, villainous parts much <a href="https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/958167/angela-lansbury-5-things-you-might-not-know-about-murder-she-wrote-star">older than her age</a> and appeared in over 40 films. It was not until the 60s that she was recognised as a leading lady and at the age of 41 took on the title role of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcF-WRNLcTc">Mame</a>, winning her first Broadway Tony award. Despite her effort at creating the role, she was rejected by the film studios to play the same part in the Hollywood adaptation, losing out to Lucille Ball.</p>
<h2>Leading roles</h2>
<p>During the 70s, the family retreated to County Cork, Ireland after their Malibu home was burnt to the ground and daughter Deidre had a close encounter with murderer <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/news/angela-lansbury-saved-daughter-charles-manson-1235400889/">Charles Manson</a>. She limited her work to focus on her family until Disney’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066817/">Bedknobs and Broomsticks</a> delivered her long-awaited Hollywood leading lady role in 1971. </p>
<p>Developed at the same time as Mary Poppins but put on hold due to technical complications, Bedknobs and Broomsticks was originally planned for <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/72445/13-magical-facts-about-bedknobs-and-broomsticks">Julie Andrews</a>. However, by the time Andrews went to accept the part, Lansbury had already been cast. </p>
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<p>She continued to pioneer new stage roles, notably for Stephen Sondheim as Rose in Gypsy (1973, London premier) and the original Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd (1979 Broadway premiere) leading to a further four Tony awards. In 1980, she met with Andrew Lloyd Webber, who pitched to her the role of Norma Desmond for his new musical version of the Billy Wilder classic film, Sunset Boulevard. The song he used to try to entice Lansbury was later rewritten and became Memory, finally appearing in Cats sung by Elaine Paige. Although Lansbury desperately wanted to play the role she was not considered when it was finally produced in 1993. </p>
<p>In 1991, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast introduced Lansbury to a new audience as the motherly figure Mrs Potts and ironically this was as close as she was going to get to winning an Oscar when the title tune for which she is now famed for singing won best original song.</p>
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<p>In her massively varied career, it was the TV series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086765/">Murder, She Wrote</a> (1984-96) that established Lansbury as a worldwide household name as the amateur detective Jessica Fletcher, running for 12 seasons. Lansbury holds the record for the most Emmy nominations for outstanding lead actress in a drama series receiving 12 for Murder, She Wrote, one for each season.</p>
<p>Lansbury kept working to the very end. Her final screen appearance will be aired in December 2022 in the Netflix murder mystery <a href="https://www.looper.com/1042609/how-you-can-see-glass-onion-a-knives-out-mystery-in-theaters-before-it-hits-netflix/">Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery </a>. While details of her exact role in the film have not been made public, it will likely have some connection to Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. </p>
<p>Through her iconic roles, Angela Lansbury has left a legacy that will touch the lives of people for years to come – whether that’s as Mrs Potts weaving a “tale as old as time” or as the sleuth Jessica Fletcher. Goodbye, Dame Angela Lansbury.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192421/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Langston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From her role as sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote to originating some of the most famous roles on the stage, Lansbury’s career was impressive and expansive.
Stephen Langston, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for Performance, University of the West of Scotland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/74995
2017-03-29T06:23:10Z
2017-03-29T06:23:10Z
Beauty and the Beast censorship attempt shows the good, the bad and the ugly of LGBT rights in Malaysia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162869/original/image-20170328-21258-2nk9aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walt Disney Studios</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Originally scheduled for release on March 16 in Malaysian cinemas, Walt Disney Studio’s live-action version of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Beauty and the Beast</a> was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/world/asia/beauty-beast-gay-character-malaysia.html">initially banned in the country</a> due an outcry over a short scene of two men dancing. </p>
<p>Despite continuing objections from conservative NGOs that this “gay scene” goes against Malaysian values, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/03/21/world/asia/ap-as-malaysia-beauty-and-the-beast.html">the film will now be screened uncut</a>. Many Malaysians believe that the country’s Film Censorship Board relented in part due to tourism minister Nazri Aziz’s comment that the ban was “<a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/03/13/nazri-blanket-ban-on-movies-ridiculous/">ridiculous</a>”. </p>
<p>Objections from certain sectors of Malaysian society to the film neatly illustrates both the fear and lack of understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the country. A prevailing <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Policing-Sexuality-Sex-Society-State/dp/1848138970">moral panic</a> means <a href="http://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/she-brother-pastor-edmund-smith-real-love-ministry-rlm-malacca/">gay men</a> and <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/1959238/meet-nisha-ayub-who-survived-years-suffering-become">male-to-female transgender people</a> have been particular targets of discrimination, conversion therapies and even violence. </p>
<p>Opposition to LGBT people is part of a larger framework of hostility towards and the policing of Malaysians who are considered immoral. </p>
<p>Secular and religious police have raided hotels in search of unmarried Muslim couples who are considered guilty of <a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/12/17/khalwat-raids-make-malaysia-tougher-than-saudi-arabia/"><em>khalwat</em></a> – close proximity between unwedded people. And sex workers have been routinely <a href="http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/05/144468/police-raid-sex-den-jalan-silang-52-prostitutes-detained">rounded up</a> and sent to police stations for illegal activities.</p>
<h2>Criminalising sexualities</h2>
<p>Homosexual <em>identities</em> are not illegal in Malaysia, but there are secular and religious laws that criminalise sexual <em>expressions</em> between men, such as the <a href="http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Penal%20Code%20%5BAct%20574%5D2.pdf">Malaysian penal code</a> and <a href="http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/syariah-laws-in-malaysia/34923/14"><em>Syariah</em> (Islamic) laws</a>. Some sections of the the Code outlaw oral and penetrative sex, for instance. And while such laws are applicable to all citizens, they have targeted primarily gay men. </p>
<p>Former deputy prime minister <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/world/asia/malaysian-court-upholds-anwar-ibrahim-sodomy-conviction.html?_r=0">Anwar Ibrahim</a> is probably the most prominent Malaysian to be prosecuted for homosexual acts. He has been subject to a series of arrests, convictions and acquittals since 1998. </p>
<p>In 2015, he began <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/10/anwar-ibrahim-guilty-in-sodomy-case">a five-year sentence</a> on the charge of sodomy. Although Malaysian academics argue that these are obviously <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/270329/pdf">political ploys</a> against him, Anwar’s case is symbolic of the vulnerability of gay men in Malaysia.</p>
<p>Male-to-female transgender people – known as <em>mak nyah</em> in Malay – are often seen as men who shamelessly imitate women. <em>Mak nyahs</em> often experience social <a href="http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/transcending-tribulations-malaysian-mak-nyahs-joseph-goh">stigma</a> familial rejection and workplace discrimination, which causes some of them to resort to sex work for a living. </p>
<p>Apart from the penal code and <em>Syariah</em> laws, <em>mak nyahs</em> can also be arrested under the <a href="http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%20336.pdf">1955 Minor Offence Act</a> for indecent behaviour. Malaysian transgender activists, such as <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/4611">Sulastri Ariffin</a>, have shared stories of ill treatment in public areas as well as in prison. </p>
<p>And although the police have denied it, the recent murder of transgender woman Sameera Krishnan is seen by some in the LGBT community as a <a href="http://www.themalaysiantimes.com.my/netizens-fume-over-sameeras-murder-as-laid-to-rest-on-birthday/">hate crime</a> against <em>mak nyahs</em>.</p>
<h2>The role of religious belief</h2>
<p>The vulnerability of LGBT people in Malaysia particularly affects Muslims and those at the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. </p>
<p>Organised religions continue to play an important role in the daily lives of Malaysians. LGBT citizens have been labelled as <a href="http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/malaysia-will-not-protect-un-islamic-gay-rights-says-pm/">enemies of Islam</a> and compared to <a href="http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1523466">terrorist groups</a> in the Muslim-majority country.</p>
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<span class="caption">Actors Josh Gad and Luke Evans dancing together caught the eye of Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walt Disney Studios</span></span>
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<p>Mainstream Christian churches have stated that they do not condone violence against LGBT people, but they continue to resort to the Bible to condemn homosexual expressions as <a href="http://www.necf.org.my/newsmaster.cfm?&menuid=2&action=view&retrieveid=930">going against divine law</a>. </p>
<p>Other religious groups in Malaysia have mostly been silent on the issue, but the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism has officially <a href="https://harmonymalaysia.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/mccbchst-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%98rights-to-life-liberty-the-right-to-the-dignity-of-the-person-and-the-right-to-privacy-for-all-persons/">spoken against</a> discrimination and violence towards LGBT people.</p>
<h2>Largely unprotected</h2>
<p>In 2012, deputy minister in the prime minister’s department, Mashitah Ibrahim, stated that the Malaysian Federal Constitution <a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/06/19/lgbt-not-protected-by-federal-constitution/">does not provide protection</a> for LGBT people. And during the signing of the <a href="http://www.asean.org/storage/images/ASEAN_RTK_2014/6_AHRD_Booklet.pdf">ASEAN Human Rights Declaration</a> at the <a href="http://asean.org/21st-asean-summit-in-phnom-penh-in-november-2012-asean-today/">21st ASEAN Summit in 2012</a>, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak deliberately <a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2012/11/19/asean-leaders-ink-declaration/">excluded LGBT rights</a> on the premise that the country has its own moral norms and values.</p>
<p>In 2016 <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/malaysia">Human Rights Watch</a> noted the steady increase of human rights violations in Malaysia. Topping the list were curtailments of free speech and freedom of expression, police abuse, detention without trial, human trafficking and the lack of protection for LGBT people. In fact, the human rights NGO considers Malaysia one of the <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/275706">worst places</a> in the world for transgender people. </p>
<p>The fight for LGBT rights in Malaysia has faced and continues to encounter various forms of resistance. Islamic federal and state government agencies have even claimed that <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/195130">sexual minority rights</a> do not constitute human rights. </p>
<p>Efforts to foster community spirit among LGBT Malaysians have also been prohibited, as <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/180438">evident in the banning</a> of the sexuality rights festival <em>Seksualiti Merdeka</em> in the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur in 2011.</p>
<p>In short, LGBT rights do not officially exist in Malaysia.</p>
<h2>Fighting the good fight</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, LGBT activists continue to fight for recognition. Grassroots organisation <a href="https://humanrightsinasean.info/content/justice-sisters.html">Justice for Sisters</a>, for instance, is actively advocating for the rights of Malaysian transgender men and women. </p>
<p>Community-based organisations such as the <a href="http://www.ptfmalaysia.org/">PT Foundation</a> and <a href="http://www.klass.org.my/en/home.html">Kuala Lumpur AIDS Support Services Society</a> deal mainly with issues of sexual health. But they also recognise the need to educate government departments and the general population on related issues of gender and sexuality. </p>
<p>Numerous groups in the country are discreetly creating strategies on how best to canvass for the rights of LGBT people. For many of them, working behind the scenes is the safest and most effective way. </p>
<p>Malaysian LGBT activists have also <a href="https://www.outrightinternational.org/content/claiming-lgbt-rights-asean-community">linked up</a> with their international counterparts. In 2011, the <a href="http://aprrn.info/report-on-the-2011-asean-civil-society-conference-asean-people-e2-80-99s-c2-a0forum-2011/">ASEAN Civil Society Conference and ASEAN People’s Forum</a> was held in Kuala Lumpur. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.outrightinternational.org/">International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission</a> and the <a href="https://aseansogiecaucus.org/">ASEAN SOGIE Caucus</a> organised workshops and set up booths to educate the masses on LGBT rights. Many Malaysian LGBT activists were involved in these events, and took the opportunity to speak to politicians about their issues, needs and concerns.</p>
<p>Despite these efforts, LGBT rights in the country continue to face uncertainty, disapproval and opposition. Activists experience a certain measure of the good – a sense of community and camaraderie – as they work towards their goals. But they are also subject to a lot of the bad and the ugly in their fight for the legal, social, cultural and religious recognition and appreciation of LGBT people. They too are, at the end of the day, Malaysians in their own right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph N. Goh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Objections from certain sectors of Malaysian society to the film neatly illustrates both the fear and lack of understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the country.
Joseph N. Goh, Lecturer in Gender Studies, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/74561
2017-03-17T10:38:22Z
2017-03-17T10:38:22Z
Beauty and the Beast was originally a feminist fable disguised as marriage guidance
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161161/original/image-20170316-10913-1n27mkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Diane de Joannis de Châteaublanc, Madame de Ganges, the original Beauty.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_de_Joannis_de_Chateaublanc#/media/File:Diane_de_Joannis_de_Chateaublanc.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Though it is more commonly known these days for its part in the Disney Princess franchise, Beauty and the Beast is an enduring tale which has sparked film adaptations and novelisations across centuries. Though <a href="http://humanitiesresource.com/ancient/articles/Beauty_and_Beast-Final.pdf">originally published</a> in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/beauty.html">most famous version of the tale</a>, La Belle et la Bête, was produced by <a href="https://chawtonhouse.org/_www/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Leprince-de-Beaumont2.pdf">French writer Jeanne-Marie le Prince de Beaumont</a> in the 1750s.</p>
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<span class="caption">French writer Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780).</span>
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<p>De Beaumont published approximately 70 volumes during her literary career and was celebrated as a writer of fairy tales. But rather than just fantasy or fable, her rendering of Beauty and the Beast is actually more a critique of women’s rights of the time, hidden behind layers of marital guidance.</p>
<p>Surprising though it may seem – more modernly, some have interpreted Beauty and the Beast as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/april-wilson/emma-watson-beauty-and-the-beast_b_15152304.html">a tale of Stockholm Syndrome</a> rather than romance – when you look at de Beaumont’s other work it makes sense. </p>
<h2>The original Belle</h2>
<p>Before her Beauty adaptation, the writer translated the tragic tale of Madame de Ganges, based on the real-life tragic history of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00397709.1987.9958156?journalCode=vsym20">Diane-Elisabeth de Rossan</a>. The protagonist has an unfortunate story: a wealthy, beautiful and virtuous young woman remarries after becoming widowed. She makes a poor choice, however, and marries a jealous husband with two villainous brothers, both of whom fall in love with her. When neither succeeds in corrupting her virtue, their anger is so great that they decide to murder her – with the endorsement of her husband. </p>
<p>The heroine is ordered to choose the method of her own death: poison, stabbing or shooting. But in a twist in the tale, Madame de Ganges ends up the victim of all three: she is not only forced to swallow the poison, but when she attempts to escape, she is stabbed by one of the brothers, and shot. Ultimately, it is the poison which finishes her off: details of the character’s autopsy in a <a href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;idno=N27243.0001.001">later translated version</a> reveal that it had “burnt the coats of her stomach, and turned her brain quite black”. The beauty of the young woman was transmuted into the beast of a blackened husk.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161146/original/image-20170316-10890-1bagmto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161146/original/image-20170316-10890-1bagmto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161146/original/image-20170316-10890-1bagmto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161146/original/image-20170316-10890-1bagmto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161146/original/image-20170316-10890-1bagmto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161146/original/image-20170316-10890-1bagmto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161146/original/image-20170316-10890-1bagmto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Appearances matter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walter_Crane,_illustration_from_Beauty_and_the_Beast,_1875.jpg">Walter Crane/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, in de Beaumont’s version of Madame de Ganges’s tale, written as a moral for young women, she seemingly attributes some culpability to the Marchioness in her own downfall. Her husband’s jealousy arises because she “gad[s] about so much”, enjoying being admired for her beauty. This incurs the wrath of her jealous husband who chides her “to stay more at home”. </p>
<p>But de Beaumont almost seems dissatisfied with concluding that Madame de Ganges should have complied with her husband because “lions and tygers are tamed at last; a man must be of a fiercer nature than those animals, not to be gained by a complying, prudent, and discreet wife”. And so she rewrote the tale again, this time as a fairy tale: <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7074">Beauty and the Beast</a>.</p>
<h2>Beauty’s judicious choices</h2>
<p>In this version, the “Beauty” is distinctly comparable to the too-beautiful Madame de Ganges. Like the Marchioness, Beauty willingly goes to, but then is forced to submit to the will of a ferocious beast. Unlike the Marchioness, however, Beauty is able to tame the beast by being a “complying, prudent, and discreet wife”, and effect the beast’s transformation into a prince. </p>
<p>It is the conclusion of the tale which is most interesting in de Beaumont’s version, for it is here that she hints at the unsatisfactory nature of the place of women in her society and <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/beauty.html">uses her story as feminist critique</a>. Beauty, the youngest of three sisters, is portrayed as “a charming, sweet-tempered creature” who loved the Beast even though his deformity scares her. Her sisters, on the other hand, are proud and wealthy and refuse to marry anyone less than a duke or earl. The “wicked creatures” are so cruel to Beauty that they rub onions into their eyes to feign crying when she leaves their family home to live in the Beast’s castle.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Beauty, (said this lady,) come and receive the reward of your judicious choice; you have preferred virtue before either wit or beauty, and deserve to find a person in whom all these qualifications are united: you are going to be a great Queen; I hope the throne will not lessen your virtue, or make you forget yourself. </p>
<p>As to you, ladies, (said the fairy to Beauty’s two sisters) I know your hearts, and all the malice they contain: become two statues; but, under this transformation, still retain your reason.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>During de Beaumont’s time, “couverture” was law for women, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10509580600816710?journalCode=gerr20">meaning that, in Anne Mellor’s words,</a> “all women were legally ‘covered over’ or absorbed into the body of their husbands, fathers, brothers, or sons”. She might yet still retain … reason, but she is as a statue, effectively silenced and unable to act for herself".</p>
<p>The writer seems to be implying, that for the majority of women in the 18th century marriage market, there was little potential for “happy ever afters”, and only the exercise of “judicious choice” would ensure the attainment of one. For Beauty’s sisters, they chose to value wealth and status above all else, making them beasts within and ultimately becoming their downfall.</p>
<p>Like de Beaumont’s Beauty, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-traditional-tale-with-titillating-twists-beauty-and-the-beast-gets-reinvented-again-72674">Emma Watson’s new iteration</a> has become one that reflects the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/16/beauty-and-beast-goes-feminist-as-emma-watson-gives-belle-a-care/">rights and powers of women</a> – but the feminist aspects of the tale really are as old as time. De Beaumont wanted to teach women then that they have more value than just as a wife, and it is a lesson that rings true nearly 300 years on – though now a woman’s “judicious choices” can give far more freedom than an 18th-century Beauty could ever imagine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valerie Derbyshire receives funding from WRoCAH (AHRC).</span></em></p>
There was more than meets the eye to one of the most famous versions of Beauty and the Beast.
Valerie Grace Derbyshire, Doctoral Researcher, School of English, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/71398
2017-03-16T08:29:11Z
2017-03-16T08:29:11Z
Beauty and the Beast: how to overcome negative reactions to facial disfigurement
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160555/original/image-20170313-9628-12s20eb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(c) 2016 Disney Enterprises inc. All Rights Reserved. </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The classic fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast is hitting the big screens <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-traditional-tale-with-titillating-twists-beauty-and-the-beast-gets-reinvented-again-72674">again</a> in a new adaptation. In the traditional story, Belle is taken captive by the Beast in his castle. As she comes to know him, she learns to look beyond his outward appearance and to fall in love with the true person underneath. When Belle declares her love for the Beast, he is transformed back into the handsome prince he was before a wicked fairy cast a spell on him. They both live happily ever after. </p>
<p>The message is clear: inner character is more important than outward appearance, and looking beyond physical ugliness can lead to true happiness in a relationship. </p>
<p>And yet, in popular culture, an unattractive or disfigured person is usually depicted as a villain with a warped personality. Take the Joker in Batman; Darth Vadar in Star Wars; Lord Voldemort, the enemy of Harry Potter; Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, or the Phantom of the Opera. Even in Beauty and the Beast, the person with a disfigurement is really a handsome prince under a spell who is transformed back into his true self at the end of the story.</p>
<p>In real life, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that we judge other people far too readily on their appearance. My own <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01973533.2012.674420">research</a> in 2012, building on previous <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/000712699161369/full">research</a> by others, compared the way we react to photographs of people depicted with facial disfigurement. </p>
<p>When participants in our study were shown photos of people with facial disfigurement, they judged those people to be less out-going, competitive, and assertive than the same people when shown in images without facial disfigurement. They were also judged to be more sensitive and emotional, to be a follower rather than a leader, and were expected to be more warm and trustworthy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160954/original/image-20170315-5347-bzcn6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160954/original/image-20170315-5347-bzcn6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160954/original/image-20170315-5347-bzcn6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160954/original/image-20170315-5347-bzcn6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160954/original/image-20170315-5347-bzcn6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160954/original/image-20170315-5347-bzcn6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160954/original/image-20170315-5347-bzcn6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Images used in experiment on reactions to disfigurement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, these somewhat negative views of people with facial disfigurement contrasted with positive views of people shown with a different type of impairment – restricted mobility. When shown a picture of a man without facial disfigurement sitting in a wheelchair, participants in our study judged him to be more out-going, competitive and assertive than the picture of the same man standing up. He was also judged to be more intelligent and decisive, better able to cope with pressure and have more initiative. So in the same study, participants showed positive discrimination towards a person using a wheelchair, but negative discrimination towards a person shown with facial disfigurement. </p>
<p>In a second <a href="http://roar.uel.ac.uk/1804/1/2013_Stone_Wright.pdf">study</a> I was involved with, my colleague and I found discrimination in recruitment against people who declared a facial disfigurement on their application. They were less likely to be invited to an interview or to receive a call to discuss their application. However, this was only for jobs requiring a higher degree of customer contact, such as a salesperson or receptionist. Other <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18987084">studies</a> have also suggested that people with facial disfigurements might encounter discrimination in employment, such as being rated less favourably after an interview.</p>
<h2>Under the stereotype</h2>
<p>This paints a bleak picture, but discrimination against people with facial disfigurement is not inevitable and we can overcome our instinctive reactions and unlearn our negative stereotypes. </p>
<p>In my research, I have observed that people who have a personal acquaintance with a disfigurement have less prejudicial reactions to photographs of strangers with a facial disfigurement. They experience fewer negative emotions, and rate people with facial disfigurements higher on a variety of skills and desirable traits than others who don’t know people with a disfigurement. </p>
<p>Some researchers <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/75954120/A-Dual-Process-Model-of-Reactions-to-Perceived-Stigma">have suggested</a> that this might be due to two underlying reactions we have to people with a disfigurement. One is an instinctive reaction, learnt from the repeated associations of disfigurement with negative qualities that we see presented within popular culture, that leads to avoidance and discomfort. The other is a process of reflection by which we can overcome the initial negative reaction and consciously choose to avoid stereotypes. We can unlearn our negative stereotypes by becoming aware of them, recognising that they are unfounded, and thinking about the kind of behaviour we want to show. </p>
<p>In the story of Beauty and the Beast, Belle gets to know the Beast over a period of time and so she learns to look past his appearance and appreciate his noble character. An interesting alternative is the story of Shrek, in which the half-human and half-ogre princess Fiona finds her true love and her true form as a full-time ogre. In this role-reversal, it is the love of the ogre Shrek which helps her to decide who she wants to be – and she chooses ogre.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Stone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What do we really feel when we see someone with a disfigurement, and can we challenge our prejudices?
Anna Stone, Senior lecturer in psychology, University of East London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72674
2017-03-13T11:30:22Z
2017-03-13T11:30:22Z
A traditional tale with titillating twists: Beauty and the Beast gets reinvented (again)
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160339/original/image-20170310-19259-fyu9u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=617%2C5%2C1112%2C772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved..</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Jeanette Winterson’s <a href="http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/book/oranges-are-not-the-only-fruit/">Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit</a> (1985), the young female narrator stumbles upon a book of fairy tales and recoils at the story of Beauty and the Beast, musing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are men in the world.<br>
And there are beasts.<br>
What do you do if you marry a beast?<br>
… Did that mean that all over the globe, in all innocence, women were marrying beasts?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The narrator’s literal reading hints at the most obvious interpretation of the fairy tale, which sees a comeback this month in Disney’s live action remake of the classic 1991 animated Oscar-winning film starring Harry Potter star Emma Watson. </p>
<p>Originally published in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the fairytale was subsequently rewritten and abridged by another French woman, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, 16 years later. On a crudely symbolic level, Beauty and the Beast tells the tale of a young woman taming her fear of masculinity – of the size and savagery of men, of the secrecy surrounding sexuality. For that to happen, she must detach herself from her father. Their mutual love, as she reaches adulthood, must evolve – her request that he pluck a rose for her, with all its implications of romance, must, we subtly understand, remain unrealised.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160342/original/image-20170310-19278-flnk98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beauty and her father.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond this psychoanalytical reading, Beauty and the Beast draws some of its success from transportable moral lessons: never judge anyone on their appearance; love someone for who they are inside (although when you’re Beauty, the Beast somehow isn’t required to make the same effort of imagination).</p>
<h2>Good old-fashioned Disney</h2>
<p>But those explanations do not exhaust the mystery of why the fairy tale continues to fascinate all over the globe. There are straightforward adaptations – from Jean Cocteau’s superlative surrealistic take in 1946 to the 2014 Christopher Gans film – but also countless rewritings, most notably Stephenie Meyer’s wildly successful <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08164649.2010.546327">Twilight series</a> (from 2005). And this year, we are treated to a new version starring Emma Watson.</p>
<p>The trailers for Disney’s latest have drawn a colossal amount of views, and make for interesting further interpretions. If the 2017 Beauty and the Beast trailer strikes such a chord, it isn’t just because it exploits the power of the original tale. It’s also because of the other references it contains.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160341/original/image-20170310-19242-68f6c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Books trump flowers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Those glimpses of the film show us a visual evocation of the much beloved 1991 Beauty and the Beast so striking as to be almost self-plagiarised. In some shots, the extremely stylised, beautifully coloured houses and castle recall the hand-painted, still backdrops to older Disney films like Snow White. There is, as far as we can tell, no attempt at the irony, self-consciousness and sarcasm that have plagued Disney and Pixar films in the past decade. Songs are back. This is real, good old-fashioned Disney again: designed for a grandparent’s perfect afternoon with their grandchildren.</p>
<p>But the trailers are also ideal bait for my generation, the so-called millennials, many of whom would cite the 1991 version as their favourite Disney film – and especially for a special brand of millennial: the bookworm feminist. Belle has always been an ideal projector screen for girl readers: she manages to be at once a book lover, an educator, passionately desired by handsome men, and a brave adventurer. Amazingly, she finds a man who loves reading too (in one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvW_L8sTu5E">trailer</a>, the Beast says he has read almost every book in his gigantic library).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OvW_L8sTu5E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Belle Watson</h2>
<p>Belle is arguably one of Disney’s best role models for girls; it’s not saying much, but it’s better than nothing. And it’s clear that the 2017 version is taking that identification and aspirational potential of Belle to its pinnacle. </p>
<p>The choice of Watson for the lead is clever. We cannot see Watson without seeing Harry Potter’s best friend Hermione Granger – another cult bookworm warrior. And it’s not just a character we see. In recent years, Watson has graduated from Brown University, taken on the role of the <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/partnerships/goodwill-ambassadors/emma-watson">UN Women Goodwill Ambassador</a>, and founded a <a href="http://time.com/4172664/join-emma-watsons-feminist-book-club/">feminist book club</a>. She is not just as an actor, but an activist, already worshipped by young women for her brains and her beauty. In 2016 she made headlines for hiding feminist books on the tube. Disney probably had to do little to make her character plausible.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BMSFySJlhWW/?taken-by=emmawatson\u0026hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>In recent weeks, the advertising campaign has taken an interesting turn. First, there have been rumours that for the first time in Disney’s history, the film will feature hints of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/beauty-and-the-beast-gay-character-disney-le-fou-gaston-cinema-russia-boycott-a7614641.html">unrequited homoerotic attraction</a>. These claims, however, were quickly toned down <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/03/04/russia-beauty-and-beast-ban-due-over-gay-character-lefoux/98743116/">by the director</a>. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, Watson found herself accused of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39177510">lacking feminist spirit</a> after posing for Vanity Fair in a relatively revealing top. These two publicity twists are titillating, but tame enough. They have injected some scandal into the advertising campaign, but in very homeopathic proportions, cannily offsetting the traditional feel of the trailer.</p>
<p>This upcoming version will probably be a very successful, earnest, beautiful film, which will, if not surprise, at least delight. But doubtlessly, as with all versions, we will leave slightly disappointed at the ultimate transformation of the Beast into a man like all others (Cocteau pushed the allusion to the point of getting the same actor, Jean Marais, to play both the Beast/Prince and Belle’s boorish suitor, Gaston).</p>
<p>There is something sobering, indeed a little boring, about the traditional ending of Beauty and the Beast. Why leave the magical beast for just a normal man? Let’s hope that in some way this new version reinvents that disenchantment a little.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clementine Beauvais does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What do you do if you marry a beast?
Clementine Beauvais, Lecturer in English in Education, University of York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/38591
2015-03-13T01:28:57Z
2015-03-13T01:28:57Z
Beauty and the Beast promises and fails at the Adelaide Festival
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74271/original/image-20150310-13543-ri5n4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Julie Atlas Muz and Mat Fraser star in Beauty and the Beast, currently playing at the Adelaide Festival.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwen Sharp/Adelaide Festival of Arts </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beauty and the Beast is the quintessential story of a young beautiful daughter who has to live with a wealthy and ugly monster because of her father’s misfortunes. In the end, she learns to put up with the strange creature and even marries him. </p>
<p>It is a universal fable with much potential for each generation of creative thinkers to delve into current societal issues and the meaning and course of human existence. This year at the Adelaide Festival, the American theatre company One of Us productions and the UK-based <a href="http://www.improbable.co.uk/work/beauty-and-beast/">Improbable</a> have teamed up to present their own version of <a href="http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/2015/theatre/beauty_and_the_beast">Beauty and the Beast</a>.</p>
<h2>Beauty and the Beast for everyone</h2>
<p>Since the middle of the 18th century, when the famous fairy tale first appeared in the creative output of <a href="http://www.academia.edu/2003603/Jeanne_Marie_Le_Prince_de_Beaumont_1711-1780_Biographical_Essay_for_Chawton_House_Library_and_Women_Writers">Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont</a>, Beauty and the Beast has been subject to analysis that numerous artists have underscored in written and performed texts. </p>
<p>A historical contextualisation of the original highlights the rise of the bourgeoisie in 18th-century Europe. Freudian readings of Beauty reference the Oedipal complex – Beauty is holding onto her childhood attachment to her father oblivious of her own sexuality. </p>
<p>The Jungian construction points at personality integration through recognition of the dangerous and forbidden desires that are represented in the story through the metaphor of marriage. </p>
<p>The devised performance text at the Adelaide Festival promises to highlight concerns related to disability and societal taboos but falls short of a world-class standard. It remains at the level of naïve storytelling thanks to second-rate exploitation of nudity and sex. </p>
<p>It does not do justice to the famous original text and its psychological undercurrents, nor does it capitalise on the important subject of disability and possible critique of the hypersexualised female as a passive object of desire in contemporary media.</p>
<h2>A love story</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74273/original/image-20150310-13559-1ha2p94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74273/original/image-20150310-13559-1ha2p94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74273/original/image-20150310-13559-1ha2p94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74273/original/image-20150310-13559-1ha2p94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74273/original/image-20150310-13559-1ha2p94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74273/original/image-20150310-13559-1ha2p94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74273/original/image-20150310-13559-1ha2p94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beauty and the Beast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sheila Burnett, Adelaide Festival of Arts</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The narrative centres on the love story of the two main characters: American burlesque performer Julie Atlas Muz/Beauty and her husband English actor Mat Fraser/The Beast by attempting to provide a parallel to the original fairy tale. </p>
<p>Consecutive vignettes sway between the original story and cabaret-style personal memories of the two performers. It is a burlesque show combined with puppetry and shadow play, impressive costumes, good lighting and set design, underscored by a compilation sound track of poor substance and quality. </p>
<p>The supporting couple of puppeteers/assistants/angels Jonny Dixon and Jess Mabel Jones upstage the main pair with their superior acting and movement skills. The use of old theatrical techniques such as shadow play in the first scene and the commedia dell’arte scene of the father and two sisters are very effective. </p>
<p>The show has been advertised as a “sexual journey”; nudity and explicit sexual scenes define it. They are presented with utmost honesty thanks due to the ability of Muz and Fraser to appear totally uninhibited on stage. Muz has a beautiful voluptuous body and can wiggle her derrière to perfection. His body is expressively athletic. </p>
<p>But the nudity in this show is cheapened. It ends up being a means to an end because the narrative is unclear. The emotional charge is shallow and rhythmic shifts and accelerations are left unexplored.</p>
<p>On the night, the audience seemed ready to laugh from the very beginning. They were engaged throughout the entire show. Some even said that it was therapeutic to see such liberal display of nudity. I remained unimpressed and unconvinced by drooping and shaking genitalia, and by the faked intercourse in the last scene. </p>
<p>After all, such spectacles are accessible in many forms and through various platforms today. The cathartic experience I was anticipating did not transpire. </p>
<p>It is disappointing that a show of such poor theatrical merits has been admitted to the Adelaide Festival and that patrons are paying top dollar for something they can see at the Fringe Festival, at the Cabaret Fringe Festival, in the Garden of the Unearthly Delights, or in a Spiegeltent where such entertainments belong.</p>
<p><br>
<em>Beauty and the Beast will be performed at the Adelaide Festival until March 15. Details <a href="http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/2015/theatre/beauty_and_the_beast">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniela Kaleva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The devised performance text of Beauty and the Beast at the Adelaide Festival promises to highlight concerns related to disability and societal taboos – but falls short of a world-class standard.
Daniela Kaleva, Lecturer: Music, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.