THE SNOW QUEEN till 6 January
THE SNOW QUEEN
Watermill – West Berkshire Playhouse until 6th January 2007
Running Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes
Review: Stewart McGill, 11 December 2006
Powerful magic, romantic images
Neil Duffield adapts the seasonal attraction at Watermill, and together with Andy Brereton and designer Diego Pitarch restore a Nordic world to Hans Andersen’s tale of love and loyalty. This is a refreshing telling of the story and the cast of six excel in the art of transmitting the elements through story, acting and Janie Armour’s klezmer influenced gypsy music.
I have in the past been critical of Brereton’s loss of magic and wonder yet here it is, powerful magic shot through with romantic images. The revealing of the cello playing Snow Queen (Karen Fisher-Pollard) is beautiful.
The audience when I saw the show was full of school children clearly mesmerised by the adaptation and collectively leaping out of seats and skins when the Troll appears from deepest mythology to confront the Berkshire tinies. Yes, I did jump considerably as well!
There is plenty of humour and the essential Watermill fusing of the actor musician with material make The Snow Queen one of the best Christmas productions here for sometime. Lighting by Lawrence T. Doyle, a fine sound design by Chris Full and movement by Rose Ryan are essential factors in the work, with a rather lovely snowfall across the audience on conclusion, winter has well and truly arrived. All the actors deserve applause from us, Angela Bain, Karen Fisher-Pollard, Michele Long, Justin McCarron, Morgan Philpott and Sarah Stanley.
With a new Artistic Director likely to be at the helm of Watermill by the summer it will be a fascinating time to watch how the evolution of this theatre into influential producing house continues. The Christmas show is vital to the well-being of the venue and with this year’s work the team prove that the formula has lots of life to inspire and fill our eyes with wonder.
Granny/Wise Woman of the North/Robber Queen: Angela Bain
Snow Queen/Robber Princess: Karen Fisher-Pollard
Gerda: Michelle Long
Frey/Frost/Thor/Grab/Troll: Justin McCarron
Kai/Snatch: Morgan Philpott
Freya: Sarah Stanley
Creators: Written by Neil Duffield, Based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen, Directed by Andy Brereton, Original Music and Direction by Janie Armour
Designed by Diego Pitarch
Lighting by Lawrence T. Doyle
Sound by Chris Full
Movement by Rose Ryan
2006-12-13 08:57:02