THE SNOW QUEEN. To 3 January.

Lancaster

THE SNOW QUEEN
by Neil Duffield

Dukes Playhouse To 3 January 2004
Tue-Sat various dates 2pm & 7pm Schools performances 10.30am & 2pm
BSL Signed 20 December 2pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 01524 598500
www.dukes-lancaster.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden

Attractive Christmas show, but lukewarm rather than ice-cold.It's easy to do a first-class Snow Queen: just take up Stuart Paterson's adaptation of the Hans Andersen story. But there's no reason others shouldn't offer different versions. If Neil Duffield's doesn't outclass Paterson - or come near him - there's still enough fun to make this a pleasant diversion, and one capturing some of the cold/heat, death-life struggle in the world.

Duffield begins with an excess of third-person narration, at odds with the direct action that follows. It provides a sense of elemental forces, but means the journey to rescue Kai from the Snow Queen's cold, cruel grip doesn't begin until the interval.

The limitation of the show is that decent ideas are put in but never taken as far as they might stretch. So the divinity disguised as a Ragdoll is never more than a cuddly toy come to life, while the mischevious Frey, whose over-ambition takes him into the Snow Queen's control is played with childish mannerism that reduces the force of his captivity.

There's a parallel over-niceness in Eileen Murphy's production. Whereas, last year, the same writer and director achieved a delicacy of storytelling and rumbustious fun in The Emperor and the Nightingale, the balance gets knocked awry this year. There's the usual Duke chase, to great audience delight, with its chance to direct the villains away from their intended victims - so the fun quotient's OK. But the Russian-doll maternalism of Sue McCormick's Gran, in her colour-patterned dress, is an over-cosy representation of the safety and warmth of home.

Similarly, the songs make for pleasant interludes without driving or intensifying the action. Nor is much made of the forced conversion of an honest family into pretend robbers, though the role of unwilling criminal 'Princess Lightfingers' allows Amy Rhiannon Worth to give a neatly down-to-earth humanity in contrast to her all-commanding Snow Queen.

Within the Dukes' technical limits, the staging is efficiently handled, with some suitably atmospheric jagged panels of ice. It's all pleasant enough, and honestly done - nobody will have wasted their money on a ticket - but compared with the best it's unambitious and rather tame.

Frey/Jack Frost/Grab/Snow Guard/Troll: Danny Burns
Ragdoll/Freya/Snow Guard: Lynette Clarke
Gerda/Snow Guard: Victoria Fleming
Kai/Snatch/Snow Guard: Robin Johnson
Granny/Wise Woman of the North/Robber Queen: Sue McCormick
Snow Queen/Princess Lightfingers: Amy Rhiannon Worth

Director: Eileen Murphy
Designer: Paul Kondras
Lighting: Brent Lees
Sound: Julie Washington
Music/Musical director: Simon Lanzon
Song arrangements: John Megginson
Choreographer: Ruth Jones

2003-11-30 15:16:02