When beauty invites beast for Christmas
A scene from the play, Beauty and The Beast. Courtesy Photo.
Beauty, the beast and Christmas day. These three things do not look like they would fit in the same set.
However, last weekend, Kampala Amateur Dramatic Society created a twist in the fairy tale as they performed their pantomime Beauty and The Beast at the National Theatre. Not only was the ‘beast’ after the fair maiden’s hand, but also delivered a Christmas message through music and comedy, synonymous with pantomime style.
The play resonates with Ugandan culture, with the ‘prince’ clad in a kanzu and the ‘witch’, who curses him, turning him into an ugly beast, wearing banana fibres and animal skin. The fair maiden shares with him the joy of Christmas by telling him stories about the festive season.
Christmas carols like Hark the Herald, Alleluia, ushered in the different scenes and all through the play, messages of love and the coming of Christ were sang to ignite change and hope in the beastly ‘prince’.
The actors displayed many emotion-gripping acts that got revelersbursting into tears for the love story was very touching.
To sum it all, the play was talking to the audience to take the birth of Christ as a turning point for their lives from their beastly behaviours to relay the beauty inside them.
