Beauty and the Beast

Everybody loves a fairy tale. Fictional characters facing life’s woes, lessons learnt, good versus evil, with the promise of a happy ending. Husband and wife team Mat Fraser and Julia Atlas Muz found comparisons with the popular fable Beauty and the Beast, an unlikely love story that, despite all odds, flourishes. Inviting the audience to share in their journey was a privilege. We were witness to their vulnerability, passion and wit.

Fraser and Atlas Muz crossed paths in Coney Island where Muz was performing as a burlesque dancer and Fraser a disabled performance artist (a title he is most comfortable with). The connection was instantaneous. Facing challenges such as distance and marriages to other people the pair decided to collaborate on a project and Beauty and the Beast is evidence of that collusion.

Told beautifully with puppetry, shadow play and endless imagination, their love develops in spite of the challenges of disability and societal opinion. Their acceptance of each-other and the humour that draws from this is playful and alluring. The relaxed attitude with which they narrate their story allows the audience to be invested in this tale. Assisted cleverly by Jess Mabel Jones and Jonny Dixon, it is very clear nothing is forbidden. The scene at the buffet table with all the cast and a platter of fruit is not to be missed!

A striking set resembling a castle is backdrop to this seductive account of their love story. Founding member of Improbable Theatre Company and director, Phelim McDermott makes the shocking unshockable and the nudity adorable as he weaves his magic, leaving us all a little more liberated for the experience. Performers moved about the stage clearly comfortable in their own skin, an experience that I found appealing and at times touching.

Beauty is subjective and had this story been put on the stage a hundred years ago we perhaps would have had a very different ending, but thankfully the meaning of normal is forever changing and that allows us to watch shows such as this with an open heart.

Kerry Cooper

Image: Mat Fraser and Julia Atlas Muz. Credit: Bronwen Sharp. Adelaide Festival of Arts.