Bucks &amp; Oxon

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Creation-headshots.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139525" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Creation-headshots.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Creation-headshots-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Creation-headshots-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Creation-headshots-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Creation-headshots-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Anna Tolputt (L) and Emily Woodward (R)</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-first-off-tell-me-about-the-show-it-s-a-twist-on-beauty-and-the-beast-but-it-s-no-panto-is-it">First off, tell me about the show! It&#8217;s a twist on Beauty and the Beast, but it&#8217;s no panto, is it? </h3>



Emily: It&#8217;s more&#8230; really truthful fairytale meets farce. It&#8217;s also play within a play &#8211; our characters are a group of actors who are supposed to be performing a play, so we&#8217;re in and out of those characters a lot.



Anna: There are those stock fairytale characters that you&#8217;ll recognise. Belle, who is called Marie in this version of the show, has two ugly sisters, and of course there are the lovers, the prince and the princess. But Creation doesn&#8217;t do panto, so it&#8217;s not like there are Widow Twankey and Buttons characters. 



Emily: This is more magical. It&#8217;s more Christmas fairytale, less throwing sweets into the audience. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">And what about the music &#8211; what can we expect?</h3>



Anna: Paul Boyd, who wrote the script, is a bit of a Renaissance man as he also wrote the music, and it&#8217;s super romantic, very fairytale. Lots of accordion!



Emily: It&#8217;s no cheesy Disney soundtrack. The show is set in France, so there&#8217;s hints of Les Mis in there. Our song is even called One More Day, which is a bit of a coincidence, but Anna and I definitely put a bit of Les Mis flare in there. It&#8217;s quite Master of the House-y &#8211; you&#8217;ll be humming it when you leave. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Snow-White_2016.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139528" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Snow-White_2016.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Snow-White_2016-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Snow-White_2016-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Snow-White_2016-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Snow-White_2016-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Previous Creation Theatre show, Snow White</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">It&#8217;s cold season &#8211; how do you protect your voice for a Christmas show? </h3>



Emily: Flu jabs. Creation gave us all vouchers to get our jabs so we could hopefully avoid the worst. That and Berocca. 



Anna: I&#8217;ve discovered this pure liquid ginger and you shot it like it&#8217;s tequila.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Anna, this isn&#8217;t the first time you&#8217;ve played a villain for Creation &#8211; are they more fun to play than good girls? </h3>



Anna: Oh it&#8217;s glorious. Getting boos and hisses from an audience is more satisfying than a standing ovation. By show 50, you&#8217;re really milking the evil cackle. Also you can be really rude to the audience too, which is part of the joy of being an actor. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Emily, how are you finding playing the Good Fairy? Are your smiling muscles aching? </h3>



Emily: It would have been quite easy to go quite ‘route one’ with it, but even the nicest, sweetest person has different sides to them, so Evadne definitely has a bit of character. She doesn&#8217;t suffer fools gladly. 



Anna: She&#8217;s a spreadsheet woman. Loves a spreadsheet. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">I hear you might have had some other fairies in the family, too?</h3>



Emily: My mum played a Good Fairy opposite Les Dawson in Dick Whittington years ago and she played it drunk &#8211; so when the puff of smoke went up she would be on the wrong side of the stage, or it would hit her in the eye. It was brilliant, and watching her do it as a child was the moment I knew I wanted to be on stage. And now I get to play the Good Fairy myself! Although there was glitter in our house for months because of her costume &#8211; you&#8217;d go to the loo and there would be glitter all over the seat. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Is there much glitter in the show?</h3>



Emily: There&#8217;s a LOT of glitter. We use blue glitter instead of water, and there&#8217;s pink glitter shooting up when the Good Fairy is on stage and green glitter falling down when the Bad Fairy is on stage. It&#8217;s very Christmassy. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">As well as Evadne the Just and Grizelda the Grim, you also play&#8230; statues?</h3>



Anna: It&#8217;s my favourite part. No lines to remember. 



Emily: The ugly sisters get transformed into statues by my other character, Evadne, for being so mean and horrible. I think I&#8217;m going to have to do it with my eyes open, or I&#8217;ll get vertigo and fall over.



Anna: There&#8217;s also a lot of opportunity to try and make each other get the giggles when we&#8217;re meant to be statues.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1090" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/314407762_557146483083665_5486572388050736563_n-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139527" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/314407762_557146483083665_5486572388050736563_n-2.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/314407762_557146483083665_5486572388050736563_n-2-800x581.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/314407762_557146483083665_5486572388050736563_n-2-1000x727.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/314407762_557146483083665_5486572388050736563_n-2-400x291.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/314407762_557146483083665_5486572388050736563_n-2-722x525.jpg 722w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>The cast behind the scenes</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Has there been a lot of corpsing in rehearsals so far? </h3>



Anna: Well my main character is drunk and gets steadily drunker, so that&#8217;s been really funny to play. 



Emily: The audience love it when you come out of character and corpse a little bit, it makes them feel like they&#8217;re in on the joke. At one point the ugly sisters come down into the aisles and talk to audience members, and the kids absolutely love it. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Your characters are very adversarial on stage &#8211; are you taking the bickering behind the scenes too?</h3>



Anna: I don&#8217;t know what you mean!



(Both laugh) 



Emily: Not yet, but there&#8217;s time!



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How are you going to cope with the speedy costume changes? </h3>



Anna: Luckily it&#8217;s written into my character that she constantly forgets who she&#8217;s meant to be playing, so that&#8217;s been a blessing.



Emily: I&#8217;m jealous &#8211; I think I&#8217;m going to need an idiot board on the side of the stage on the night, telling me who I&#8217;m meant to be and where I&#8217;m going. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Tale-of-Beauty-and-Tail-of-the-Beast.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139526" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Tale-of-Beauty-and-Tail-of-the-Beast.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Tale-of-Beauty-and-Tail-of-the-Beast-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Tale-of-Beauty-and-Tail-of-the-Beast-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Tale-of-Beauty-and-Tail-of-the-Beast-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Tale-of-Beauty-and-Tail-of-the-Beast-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Delvene Pitt and Kofi Dennis, who play Marie and the Beast</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What do you think will be the audience&#8217;s favourite moment in the show? </h3>



Anna: Oh it&#8217;s got to be when Beauty and the Beast get together, hasn&#8217;t it? They have a beautiful song, it&#8217;s a real fairytale moment. Either that or when we forget a glitter cannon is going to go off and we get shot off stage with it. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Before we go &#8211; Emily, you played Princess Diana in Fred and Gladys at The Landor Theatre in London. Have you been watching The Crown? </h3>



Emily: I love The Crown, I love all the Dianas. I got quite obsessed with Diana &#8211; I think you do, when you play her. I had to do the Martin Bashir interview scene and I really studied how low her face went and how high she had to look up. And then I found out we have the same birthday.



Anna: Are you the same age?!



Emily: NO, she would be 61! Cheek. 



Creation&#8217;s The Tale of the Beauty and the Tail of the Beast is on at Oxford&#8217;s North Wall Theatre from 4 Dec &#8211; 7 Jan, recommended ages 5+. Tickets start at £13.50 &#8211; <a href="https://creationtheatre.co.uk/show/beauty-and-the-beast/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">book yours here</a>.

Creation’s Xmas show is fairytale meets farce (with a LOT of glitter)

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