South Mill Arts runs 36 performances of Beauty & the Beast, from 26 November. Seats are £15.50 to £28.50 by date, and the closing show is one of the cheapest.

South Mill Arts is doing Beauty & the Beast this Christmas, 36 performances from Thursday 26 November 2026 to Saturday 2 January 2027, and the price you pay swings by £13 depending on which day you pick.

The show is by Big Adventure Productions, written and directed by Ian McFarlane, and the venue bills it as the follow-up to what it calls a record-breaking 2025 pantomime. The theatre is at 1-3 South Road, Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 3JG.

Everything below comes from the venue’s own box office system, read on 4 September 2026. Prices are face value with no online booking fee, and the maximum is 20 tickets per transaction. There is one charge the price table does not show: the venue adds 50p per ticket if you collect at the box office rather than use an e-ticket, which it describes as a green initiative to cut paper.

What a seat costs

Performances are graded, and the grade is not printed on the venue’s website. It is in the ticketing data, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you book.

Grade Adult Concession Family
Preview £15.50 £12.50 not offered
Bronze £22.00 £19.00 £76.00
Silver £24.00 £21.00 £83.00
Gold £26.50 £23.50 £89.00
Platinum £28.50 £25.50 £94.00

Three performances sell at the £15.50 preview rate, and one of them is the last show of the run. The two openers are obvious enough: 7pm on Thursday 26 November and 2pm on Saturday 28 November. The third is the 3pm on Saturday 2 January 2027, the final performance, priced identically at £15.50 and £12.50. The 11am on that same closing Saturday is a Gold performance at £26.50, so the two shows on the last day are £11 apart for the same production. There is no family ticket on any of the three £15.50 dates.

Every performance and what it costs

Date Times
Thu 26 Nov 7pm (£15.50)
Sat 28 Nov 2pm (£15.50), 7pm (£22)
Sat 5 Dec 10.30am (£22), 3pm (£24)
Sun 6 Dec 10.30am (£22), 3pm (£24)
Sat 12 Dec 10.30am (£24), 3pm (£26.50)
Sun 13 Dec 10.30am (£24), 3pm (£26.50)
Sat 19 Dec 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£28.50)
Sun 20 Dec 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£28.50)
Mon 21 Dec 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£26.50)
Tue 22 Dec 11am (£28.50), 3pm (£28.50)
Wed 23 Dec 11am (£28.50), 3pm (£28.50)
Thu 24 Dec 11am (£28.50), 3pm (£28.50)
Sat 26 Dec 1.30pm (£28.50), 5pm (£28.50)
Sun 27 Dec 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£26.50)
Mon 28 Dec 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£26.50)
Tue 29 Dec 11am (£22, relaxed), 3pm (£24)
Wed 30 Dec 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£24)
Thu 31 Dec 2pm (£26.50)
Sat 2 Jan 11am (£26.50), 3pm (£15.50)

Prices are the adult rate. There is nothing on Christmas Day, and Boxing Day has two shows, at 1.30pm and 5pm, neither of them a morning one. Between 6 and 19 December the run is weekends only. Doors open half an hour before each show.

The relaxed performance

Tuesday 29 December at 11am is the relaxed performance, with the lights a little brighter and the sound a little softer. The venue describes it as suited to anyone who would benefit from a more comfortable environment.

It is also priced at the Bronze rate of £22, not the Gold rate the rest of that week carries, which makes it the cheapest ticket available in the whole of the Christmas fortnight. The venue adds that all running times are approximate and every under-16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Availability on 4 September

Every one of the 36 performances was still on sale, and every one is set up for the same 332 seats. Nothing is close to selling out.

The run is selling from the front. The fullest house by a distance is the 7pm on Saturday 28 November, the second night, with 214 of 332 seats left. After that it is 3pm on Sunday 6 December (268 left), 3pm on Saturday 19 December (272 left) and 11am on Christmas Eve (279 left). At the other end, nine performances have sold five seats or fewer, among them both shows on Monday 28 December: the 11am has sold exactly one.

Santa’s Grotto: £19, and it is going faster than the panto

The same building runs a grotto on ten dates in December: the 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th. Slots are 40 minutes apart from 10am, with the last at 3.50pm, and there are 89 of them in total.

  • £19 per child, and each ticket admits one child.
  • Only eight children per slot.
  • Because space is tight, the venue asks for no more than two adults per child.
  • The visit is a craft activity, then Santa, who gives every child a gift, then hot chocolate and cookies in what the venue calls its VIP Christmas Café.

Ten slots had already sold out by 4 September: 1.50pm and 2.30pm on Saturday 12 December; 10am, 10.40am and 2.30pm on Sunday 13 December; 3.50pm on Saturday 19 December; 10.40am and 11.20am on Sunday 20 December; 2.30pm on Wednesday 23 December; and 10am on Christmas Eve. Weekend mornings are going first.

The relaxed grotto is not bookable online. The venue says it runs at 3.50pm on Sunday 20 December, and that is exactly the one slot missing from the online listings for that day: Sunday 20 December stops at 3.10pm while every other date runs to 3.50pm. To book it you have to ring the box office on 01279 710 200.

Getting there and parking

South Mill Arts is a few minutes’ walk from the town centre car parks. For an evening show, note that Jackson Square stops charging at 6.30pm but locks its gates from 1am, and Northgate End charges until 8pm and admits no vehicles between 11pm and 7am, though the exit stays open around the clock. Apton Road and Link Road are both open 24 hours and charge until 8pm.

Our parking in Bishop’s Stortford page has every tariff, and roadworks and travel covers anything closed on the way in.

Booking

Tickets are on the venue’s box office at southmillarts.ticketsolve.com, or by phone on 01279 710 200. Prices here were correct on 4 September 2026 and the venue can change them; check the total before you pay.