Review: Snow Queen

Tutti Frutti Productions are back at York Theatre Royal’s Studio Theatre with a highly imaginative and visually entertaining production of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson.

The production becomes a musical narrative using dance, music and witty lyrics.

It is adapted by Mike Kenny from the classic story and he has tailored it to fit the needs of theatre for children aged three and above. Yet the piece is universal and this ‘slightly’ older person absolutely adored it.

Good against evil

This clever version of the fairy tale pares down the story to produce an easily understood plot. There are the important moral lessons and a battle of good against evil, with some cracking effects using versatile scenery and props designed by Kate Bunce.

The costumes also become essential to this and are used ingeniously.

The eponymous character of the Snow Queen kidnaps and influences Kai, the male character played by Mitchel Wolfe. Kai has been touched by extreme sadness and loses the ability to care any more.

The female character Gerda, played by Hannah Victoria, rescues him in the name of friendship and love. The clever use of a framed photo of Kai’s mother replaces the magic mirror of the original story and adds poignancy to the tale of kids who live in a tower block.

It is the shattering of this glass frame into shards which causes it to enter and freeze his heart.

Disco dancing flowers

Theatre which aims to engage children from the age of three years old has a difficult task but the director Wendy Harris accomplishes this by never condescending to her audience. It is fresh and contemporary from the disco dancing flowers to the volatile robber girl.

Joanne Sandi showed versatility by playing a range of characters including grandmother, a party loving flower woman and a rapacious robber girl. And she made a wonderfully hypnotic Snow Queen, wrapped in a long silver duvet coat.

Mitchel Wolfe also played other roles which added much humour and fun to the play.

I left the Studio humming – and with my head filled with the notion that lilies can be silly and dafs like a laugh. But I had been reminded that things keep changing and so must we.