The Snow Queen
Theatre N16
11th to 22nd Dec 2016
About the Play: “Theatre N16 are delighted to present a magical treat for all of the family for the festive period: a new adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s classic family tale, adapted by Tatty Hennessy (Theatre Renegade, Not Too Tame and The Reversed Shakespeare Company and directed with Scott Ellis (The Merely Players).
Greta’s brother, Kay, has been acting strange. He’s mean and moody and won’t play games. The Snow Queen must have snatched him, and left an imposter in his place. With her new friend, the wise-cracking, fame-hungry talking Crow to guide her, Greta must set out across the snow to search for her brother in the Snow Queen’s palace and bring him home in time for Christmas. Funny, magic and full of surprises, this new modern adaptation of The Snow Queen is a perfect family Christmas adventure”.
Jessica Arden as Greta
James Tobin as Kay/Crow
Jessica Strawson as Narrator
Review by Richard Lambert, 2 Stars
The “fowl-mouthed” (get it?) crow, a puppet, stole the show with his comic lines and jokes. He had the best journey of all in this fun adaptation of the classic story. But, I’d expect a puppeteer to be dressed all in black and unfortunately what you get here is a white T-shirt peeping out of grey-mix wooly jumper, baggy black joggers that don’t fit well and are short in the leg showing burgundy socks and Nike trainers, all of which does nothing to help the illusion that this puppet has a life of his own.
Add into this lights going off when there are more lines to the scene, and lights coming on after scenes have started, lighting levels adjusted during other scenes and obvious lighting cues that mismatch the script and it’s clear that either the show is under-rehearsed or the operators have literally lost the plot or the script.
There’s a rather sweet moment when multiple White Christmas Tree lights spread across the ceiling come on and there’s another sweet scene of an Ice Skating number.
This is a professional cast but it does have the feel of a drama school project.
Despite these flaws the audience, which included children, really enjoyed this hour long Festive show.
Photos by Andreas Limbis