Cutie & The Freak puts Jamaican spin on the classic fairy tale
By Balford Henry

The Beauty And The Beast fairy tale, regarded by many as 'the most beautiful story ever told,' has been traced all the way back to 425 AD when it was built around the plot of a search for a lost husband.
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's meandering rendition, published in La Jeune Americaine in 1740, is listed as the first written version of the tale. But, the best known written version is Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's abridgement of Villeneuve's work in 1756. Coming a long way forward, Disney made a very successful animated feature film of the story in 1991, which is probably the medium through which most young persons today recall the ancient tale.

PICTURE MISSING

Courtney Wilson (left) and Glen Campbell

Now forget the history and propriety and fast forward to Kingston in December, 2006 at the Centerstage Theatre in New Kingston, where we are watching the cast of the new Patrick Brown/Jambiz comedy, Cutie And The Freak putting the final touches before their pre-season opening. A relaxed Brown, Jamaica's most prolific playwright, watches the members of his cast go through their paces. He offers advice now and then, whispers words of encouragement and tries to balance his perception of what this new play should be like and what he actually sees happening on the stage.
Two young actors- Camille Davis, who plays the teenager Cutie, and Courtney Wilson, the scorched-face beast she falls in love with - are dueting the song, I Wish I Had A Friend. The song is one of Brown's six compositions from the show and probably the most memorable, as it captures the very essence of Cutie And The Freak, that is, as the Jamaican version of the ageless fairy tale.
"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 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.
Sharee McDonald-Russell, the young administrator at Ashe, who alternates with newcomer Belinda Reid as Tiny's(Oliver Samuels) live-in helper 'Munchie' in Cutie And The Freak, said she had been wondering what the imaginative Brown would come up with this time, after exploring themes like Noah and his fateful ark and The Class Of '73 in recent months. "I really like it," she approved between rehearsals. "I didn't read the book, but I saw the movie and I also saw a separate Disney live production. It is all about the underdog who eventually becomes the hero."

To Oliver Samuels, Brown's favourite comedian, playing in a Jambiz production for the umpteenth time, "it is a wonderful opportunity" to be caught in the chimera of love between between a beautiful 22-year-old teenager, who happens to be his daughter, and a beastly young man, forced to wear a face mask to hide his severe burns.
Samuels' 'Tiny' is 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.
He thinks that the best age for 'Cutie' 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 who has to constanty hide his face, and whose only companion is 'Ben'(Glen Campbell), the embodiment of a character residing in the Beast's subconscious.
Samuels' experience and the tremendous respect that the younger thespians show for him allows him to waltz through the rehearsal missing a few lines and cues. But, no one doubts that by the time the real curtain goes up on Tuesday night, he will have mastered the lines, the moves and even the audience.
And just in case he needs a prop, there is the able Campbell, like the line connecting the dots ensuring that eveything works out. The director is, as usual, Trevor Nairne, although Brown gets credit this time for co-directing, a role he has been playing for years. Jambiz's Lenford Salmon oversees the production.

Cutie And The Freak opens on Boxing Day(Tuesday) at Centerstage, Dominica Drive, New Kingston and will run Tuesdays-Fridays at 8:00 pm and Saturdays and Sunday at 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm until it goes abroad.