The stories in
Beasts and Beauties went through a lengthy process from their initial selection through to the final staging. Director Melly Still tells us about
choosing and adapting tales for the performance. After reading over 200 stories the final tales were selected and the poet Carol Ann Duffy asked to retell them in her own inimitable fashion. Then Melly and Tim Supple created the dramatized versions. Throughout the four intensive weeks of rehearsals the company of eight actors and one musician worked intensively on their transformation into an extraordinary dramatic event.
In 'The Girl and the North Wind', a Norwegian folk tale, the setting is integral to the story. The rugged mountain environment, cold wind and harsh winter add seriousness to a light-hearted story. Melly Still talks about
portraying the North Wind , and incorporating both its fierceness and its profound silence. As actor Elaine Claxton tells us, the
evocative music in this story creates a unique landscape in the imagination of the audience. Composer and musical director Terje Insunget gives a demonstration of some of the unique
instruments that he plays in this piece, created from objects native to Norway and including a horn from the last wild ram in Norway! Listen and watch as Terje demonstrates its haunting sound.
Beasts and Beauties did not have a huge production budget; the setting for each of the eight stories had to be simple not least in order to enable swift changes between each story. The sense of place was created in part by the actors themselves. For example, actor Vineeta Rishi describes the
staging of Kari's
first visit to the North Wind, where she trudges up mountains and skirts fjords. She climbs over actors and is lifted up on their backs in a simple but effective piece of physical theatre that creates the illusion of her journey.
The version of the story that emerged through rehearsal had more
layers than the original, incorporating, for example, extra characters. The Troll Hag's Inn was populated by locals, characters who have virtually no lines but whose presence, together with well-chosen props and costumes, added a social context to the story by creating the sense of a tight-knit community where benefits are shared among all members. Actor Vineeta Rishi tells us how these
additional characters were developed during the rehearsals.