Review - Beautiful Thing at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton

A tale of love blossoming in an unlikely neighbourhood in this sweet tale of romance.
Charlie Brooks and Sam Jackson in Beautiful ThingCharlie Brooks and Sam Jackson in Beautiful Thing
Charlie Brooks and Sam Jackson in Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing tells the story of Jamie and Ste, two 15-year-olds living on a council estate who both struggle to come to terms with being gay and manage to find each other.

Although it was a play first before it transferred to the big screen, it was the latter incarnation I was more familiar with having never seen the stage version.

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The way it has been adapted is literally stripped back and concentrated on the love story between the two teenagers.

While the staging was clever and the story remained broadly similar, it did strip a lot of the sub plots which would have been difficult to stage. Therefore a lot of the light and shade that were seen in an otherwise dark story was sadly lost.

A quick word on all of the performers who got better as the show went on and lead to a climax which generated plenty of laughter.

But all of the changes don’t take away from the fact that this is a very sweet and romantic story. A feel good story which will truly heart-warming and makes me want to go and watch the film all over again.

Beautiful Thing can be seen at the Royal and Derngate till Saturday. For tickets call the box office on 01604 624811 or visit www.royalandderngate.co.uk.

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