THE SNOW QUEEN. To 30 April.
Tour.
THE SNOW QUEEN
by Hans Christian Andersen adapted by Teresa Ludovico.
Teatro Kismet Tour to 19 April 2009.
Runs 1hr 5min No interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 April at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.
Italian Andersen storms on stage.
First brought to Britain by Nottingham Playhouse, Teatro Kismet, children’s theatre specialists from Bari, Italy are large-scale and theatrically colourful, their stories told through a series of vivid images.
Director Teresa Ludovico’s adaptation of Hans Andersen’s Snow Queen starts with a looming devil, his massive cloak opening to reveal the mirror that creates human coldness. It’s a shard from this the Snow Queen uses to implant hate and contempt in young Kai, drawing him to her Arctic palace, away from his friend Gerda.
The production’s strong images include the opening game of the two friends before Kai’s eye and heart are impregnated by a shard of the freezing-glass. Bound by a thread and the warmth of fire, their friendship is a glimpse of the combining of male and female before sexual complexities intrude.
And Gerda’s dance, removing her shoes before leaving to find her friend, is a simple gesture invoking the quality of her heart, and of her friendship - her barefooted journey to the ice-region a non-realistic symbol of commitment. The sudden theatrical surge of sound and light as she finally confronts the Snow Queen is aptly jolting, snow that’s fallen gently rising in sudden fierce whirls.
Yet this production’s almost half-a-decade old, and its theatricality is a type being constantly explored and developed by innovative theatre companies with specialist skills. The movement here cannot compare with the best; the use of loud classical music for impact strikes a false note in the age of specifically-tailored sound-scores. Aerial artists winding down vertical curtains are no longer the wonder they once were.
Dramatically, too, there are limitations. Some of the comedy is decidedly unfunny (though Kismet’s European cast helpfully perform in English). And Ludovico’s adaptation doesn’t take time to investigate Gerda’s trials and delays in the palace where Kai supposedly lives, or the Robber Girl with her inadequate idea of friendship as a one-sided salve for loneliness. The children’s final reconciliation is rushed by as a dramatic incidental rather than the story’s culmination.
A half-decade overhaul might be no bad thing for a production that, at its best, remains stimulatingly theatrical.
Snow Queen/Laplander: Elisabetta di Terlizzi.
Gerda: Sonia Diaz.
Kai/Laplander: Federico Dimitri.
Robber Girl/Princess: Valentina Franchino.
Grandmother/Flower Woman/Crow’s Fiancee/Robber Woman/Finland Woman: Eve Guerrier.
Prince/Dove/Laplander: Francesco Manenti.
Grand Master Devil/Artichoke/Crow/Reindeer: Augusto Masiello.
Director: Teresa Ludovico.
Designer/Lighting: Vincent Longuemare.
Movement: Giorgio Rossi.
Costume: Ruth Keller.
2009-04-10 15:58:34