| A zany take on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale |
At the Torch |
| Torch Theatre- The Snow Queen , Torch Theatre Milford Haven , December 4, 2006 |
This review first appeared in the Western Mail...Well, I don't think I'll see a more enjoyable show this Christmas - so what a pity there are only a handful of family performances of James Williams's perky panto-style musical for Peter Doran's Torch Theatre company. Mind you it seems virtually every child within reach of Milford Haven will be able to enjoy this zany take on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, since the days between now and Christmas are packed with schools shows. It's potentially a problem, of course, this familiar strategy of staging a Christmas show almost entirely for primary-school audiences, not to mention adults being denied the traditional family outing. But while in the production there might be less concern for sophistication, there is also no need for double-entendres and commercial slickness. And with a reputation for high production standards, The Torch at least is never going to relax on quality control. So, despite a target audience of under-tens and a rehearsal period of just two weeks, The Snow Queen is great fun, witty, tuneful, zippy and great to look at - Sean Crowley's customary excellent set and costumes are enhanced by a great lighting design from David Abra. The actual story of The Snow Queen is surprisingly faithfully followed, with tweaks like the Liverpudlian gardener-witch and her living flowers, a troupe of evil acrobats and mime artistes, some joke-obsessed Scots fishwives and a couple of laid-back American polar bears ("Are you going to eat me ?" cries poor little Welsh Gerda. "Yes ma'am, we're polar bears. That's what we do."). The moral about good and evil gets somewhat lost, but, hey, these are postmodernist times and kids today are about style rather than content… But it's the spirited characterisation that carries the show, with the excellent Catherine Morris, exploiting her Llanelli extra vowels, as the heroine Gerda (the original Kay becomes Cai but Gerda stays Gerda) the only actor who doesn't play multiple roles. Carrie Munn switches from haughty Snow Queen to dippy horticulturalist to cackling crook and Alex Alderton is a grandmother, a speaking scouse lily and particularly spoilt cockney brat but both work best as the all-too-short double act of Highland lassies hanging out their herrings to smoke. I also enjoyed Edward Harrison's hero Cai and even more his Momma Goolie and Russell Morton's varied roles as a would-be junior gangsta and a nervous reindeer amongst others. There is, perhaps, a bit too much patent patronising of youth culture in Williams's script, with the obligatory "wicked", "whatever", "duh" and "well out of order" (plus, I think, some I didn’t even recognise), along with the nursery toilet humour and the guaranteed hoots that greet anything to do with flatulence, urination and defecation. But at least there's no nastiness or sexual dodginess - and for a story that is at heart about a repressed blonde dominatrix who captures and entrances an innocent young boy (Andersen did have real problems with women !) that's some feat. The score, also by Williams, is the sort that pastiches most modes of pop music (adults, I must warn, can be sent mad trying to place the source material) and it is performed with both gusto and skill - you won't find as good singing in many bigger and flashier shows. It's a successful up-note on which to end the season and start a theatre-free year for The Torch, which goes dark while a brand new building with main stage and studio takes its place. |
Reviewed by: David Adams |
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