December 29,2006


CUTIE AND THE FREAK opens with a bang

Patrick Brown’s comedic fairytale CUTIE AND THE FREAK had the capacity Centerstage audience in stitches on opening night (December 26), including his worship the Mayor of Kingston Councillor Desmond McKenzie and his entorage.The cast, led by the inimitable King of Comedy Oliver Samuels and the versatile Glen “Titus” Campbell pulled out all the stops to deliver a seamless performance, and the appreciative audience
lapped up every moment of the fun, applauding each and every high point in the production. Loosely based on the ageless fairytale Beauty and the Beast – regarded by many as “the most beautiful story ever told”, Patrick Brown’s story is Jamaican in every sense of the word, and is generously spiced with local topicalities. Playwright Patrick Brown was in his element on opening night as the incessant laughter filled the theatre. "Fairy tales are real family favourites because they are so bewitching," Brown says. "Some, like Beauty And The Beast, so charmingly offer hope for
those who still recall chivalry, knights on white horses, tall, handsome men with baritone voices or young princes who are turned into toads by jealous, menopausal witches”.

Rising stars of theatre - Camille Davis and Courtney Wilson, carry the love “plot” of the piece on two able shoulders, and Sharee McDonald-Russell plays a feisty household helper Munchie, who is not afraid to exchange insults with her employer. Samuels plays 'Tiny' - a vulgar, uppity higgler or, as he prefers to call himself, an Informal Commercial Importer(ICI), who has managed to shake off poverty and relishes a middle-class life with a refined wife and 'classy' daughter Cutie. He thinks that the best age for 'Cutie' (played by Davis) to start dating is 25. He accuses 'Munchie' of failing to overcome her 'ghettoisation.' Yet, he doesn't see the need to wash his face and brush his teeth before breakfast. He relaxes his obsessive control of 'Cutie' when he realises that her only male companion is the beastly neighbour (Frank the Freak played by Wilson) who has to constanty hide his face, and whose only companion is 'Ben'(played by Campbell), the embodiment of a character residing in the Beast's subconscious. CUTIE AND THE FREAK is fun, fun, fun, can’t done. A “must-see” comedy for the entire family.