Written by orange• May 6, 2025• 12:40 am• Irvine, Review, Theater, UCI, Uncategorized

World Premiere UCI Drama Presents: La Belle et la Bête @ UCI – Review

Photo credit: Jeanine Hill

Written by Patrick Chavis

La Belle et la Bête is playing now at the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts from May 2 to 10, 2025.

Adapted and directed by UCI teacher Annie Loui, this world-premiere production, La Belle et la Bête, explores the life of Gabrielle Suzanne Villeneuve, the writer of Beauty and the Beast, and her real-life experiences in 1700s France that possibly inspired the tale. Through a banquet of light, projection, and physical theatre, the tale as old as time feels a little newer and surprisingly darker if you grew up on the Disney version.

Widowed because of her husband’s death, writer Gabrielle Suzanne Villeneuve (Zoe Rose Davidson) lives with Prosper Crebillon (Heriberto Cruz Jr.), a famous poet and playwright of the time, renowned for writing tragedies, assisting him with his royal duties as a literary censor. It’s a mixture of fiction and real accounts. The narrative traces how Villeneuve possibly found inspiration for her fairy tale while living with Crebillion. Through the parallels in her life and the story, we watch real life and fiction intertwine.

Story:

The playwright does a great job exploring how life and inspiration work hand in hand and also showing us the therapeutic nature of writing. Even when writing a fantastical story featuring magic, there is no escaping the psychological. It finds itself in our writings, whether or not we want it there. The play also details the many difficult and downright dangerous predicaments women, even noble women, had to deal with at the time.

Using projections from Projection Designer Yee Eun Nam, five hanging cylinder-like apparatuses provided settings ranging from French architecture to forest landscapes. The texture and movement used on this untraditional background helped the projections pop, and the spacing between the backgrounds contributed to utilizing the majority of the Experimental Media Lab. A black lifted stage, covered in foliage, provided an extra vantage point.

Choreography:

The choreography is reminiscent of physical theater, as the actors latch onto each other. Sometimes, they jump on each other’s backs or pose in various shapes. One of my favorites was when the actors shaped a rose. They also act out the movements of animals on stage.

The athleticism and flexibility of these actors were exceptional. The dancing and movement felt well integrated into the presentation, like living, breathing art.

Acting/Costume:

Heriberto Cruz Jr., who plays the Beast, transitions from crawling on all fours menacingly to hunching over on both legs when exposing his kinder, more humane side. The use of smoke emanating from his costume and the horned beast mask from costume designer Ashley Morgan paired well with his more aristocratic suit. They always found the line between beastly and proper in design and performance, from black, fitted dresses and suits that perfectly match the background to the more pronounced blue and red worn by the leads.

Davidson and Cruz, the leads in this piece, were pivotal in letting the audience see the differences between the fantastical and the real. Cruz displayed a dangerous side as the Beast, and Davidson displayed a measured but fearful one. When Cruz played Crebillon, he was way more reserved and awkward, and Davidson was more stern and straight to the point. It’s a good example of how appearance can be deceiving. These two have a fascinating relationship, and the actors did an excellent job bringing it to the stage.

Besides the leads, there were strong supporting performances from Anina Baker, who played French actress and writer Jeanne Quinault. Baker delivered her lines with great passion during the salon performance scenes. And Jake Stiel played Crebillon’s son, with a pompous charm, and brought a bit of humor to the stage. The polite but biting wit of the 1700s is on full display.

Sound Design:

A mesmerizing combination of sounds from Andrew Yoder’s sound design and Composer Mike Hooker’s music, which served the production and visual aesthetic of the projections well.

Hints of the familiar with a step in the future — drop in to see La Belle et la Bête before it closes its very short run at UCI Contemporary Theater Art Center.