The annual pantomime at St Anthony's theatre aims for a warmth, an intimacy with its audience that is not in the gift of technology or lavish spectacle. The current Beauty and the Beast is its best show for some years.
The story is predictably traditional. A brat-prince offends a witch and is doomed to be an ugly beast until he gets manners and is rescued by the power of true love. His bleak castle has a comic mistress in Val Fitzpatrick as Mrs Potty, a grand dame if ever there was one.
Alan Hughes is Sammy Sausages, friend to the good and knock-kneed coward before the rough-and-tumblers. Elaine Hearty is a winsome, vivacious Belle with two ugly sisters, Lutricia and LaToyah, hilariously played by Sinead O'Brien and Brenda Donoghue. And Kevin Hynes, as the handsome Garscon, is very funny indeed.
There is a deal of singing, and a lot of lively dancing, and for about two hours, the show provides non-flagging entertainment: a serious alternative to the more dazzling - and expensive - pantomimes running elsewhere.
Runs until the end of January; to book, ring 01- 6706991/6726222