THE SNOW QUEEN. To 3 January.

Stirling

THE SNOW QUEEN
by Stuart Paterson

MacRobert Centre To 3 January 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 2pm no eve performance 31 December, no performance 1 January
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 01786 466666
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 December

Good-looking set but production lacks a sensitive response to the script.This revival of Stuart Paterson's finest Christmas play (for 5+) looks good, with snowy wastes leading to the eventual revelation of the Snow Queen's palace gate, a giant image of the frozen monarch's face as a sour Statue of Liberty.

She's a leader who betrays her own closest follower, Cobweb Spider, besides using cruelty and imprisonment to seek the power eternal cold will bring. But the production never strikes sharp or deep as the humanity-defiling glass splinters of the Snow Queen's mirror.

It's as if audiences couldn't be trusted to listen. Everything's taken at an undifferentiated pace, with hurried speech on occasions inaudible from my seat and little sense of events' significance.

Paterson begins with sun-god Bhima's failed contest against the Queen, leading to his/her imprisonment, then the realistic scene of Gerda and Kay with Grandmother, important for establishing Kay as the boy the sea gave to the land and Gerda as the more mature, protective child.

This section ends with the terrifying irruption into their lives of Queen and Spider and Kay's abduction. It's vital we believe that Gerda is courageous enough to undertake the dangers of pursuing her lost brother', despite his splinter-inspired cruelty to her. Though Mary Gapinski gives signs of understanding the character, the production limits her chance to explore Gerda's strengths.

Without tension built up here, the first comic episode, with back-chatting ravens Scruff and Peck, lose its impact. Surprisingly, now Paterson gives the audience a chance to yell out and play a trick on Aunt Peck, the moment's passed over quickly, with little exploitation of the fussy Aunt's pomposity to increase Scruff's joking.

Similarly the encounters with Princess Lena and Robber Girl seem mere decorations to the action. There's no feeling of the desperate delays they bring - the palace scene, with the venal King Grin, should be especially spine-tingling, bringing Gerda the gain of freeing Bhima but near-capture by the Snow Queen.

Yet, like so much else, these scenes make little impact. Helen Logan and Stephen Docherty offer a sense of their different evil ways. Otherwise, this fine play comes over as a curious blank.

Bhima/Tough Bear/Ice Ghost: Rosina Bonsu
King Grin/Muscles/Raindeer: Matt Costello
Cobweb Spider: Stephen Docherty
Prince/Niko/Soft Bear/Ice Ghost: Rob Evans
Gerda: Mary Gapinski
Kay/Scruff/Twitch: Bill Gardiner
Princess Lena/Redhead/Ice Ghost: Veronica Leer
Snow Queen: Helen Logan
Grandmother/Peck/Robber Woman/Ice Ghost: Jill Riddiford

Director: Mari Binnie
Designer: Jessica Worrall
Lighting: Tariq Hussain
Music: Johnny Logue

2003-12-28 00:28:29