La Belle Et La Bête: A Contemporary Retelling

Bénédicte Décary and Stéphane Demers in La Belle Et La Bête. Photo by Yves Renaud.

Montreal-based Lemieux Pilon 4D Art opened Luminato's fifth season last night with the English premiere of La Belle et la Bête: A Contemporary Retelling. Now playing at the Bluma Appel Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, this breathtaking adaptation of the classic fairy tale uses 3D technology to create a virtual reality where the actors interact with projected scenery and other forms on stage.

In this version of the story, Belle (Bénédicte Décary) is a tortured artist, mouring her mother's death and the subsequent loss of her father, who abandons her after the tragedy. A fiercely independent woman, the unhappy Belle is determined to conquer death with her morbid paintings, while her selfish sister (Anne-Marie Cadieux) critiques the work as a reappearing hologram.

One day an errand brings Belle to the wooded estate of a strange and wealthy loner. The Beast (Stéphane Demers) challenges her presence at first, but of course the unlikely pair are quickly enamoured and so begins this famously bittersweet romance. Threatened by the ever-present spectre of painful memories and the jealous tendencies of another character—The Lady (played by a wonderfully wicked Diana D'Aquila)—the couple must face themselves honestly and learn to sacrifice the past for the sake of the future.

La Belle et la Bête is a remarkable feat of optical illusion. Featuring astonishing work by a highly-skilled creative team and talented cast, this visual tour-de-force is unlike anything you've seen on stage. Lemieux's clever script flips the original fairy tale on its head and forces us to question the difference between good and evil. D'Aquila's brilliant performance alone is reason to catch this show.

La Belle et la Bête: A Contemporary Retelling runs until June 12 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. Visit Luminato.com for more information and to buy tickets.

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