The Snow Queen

What a lovely afternoon we had watching Mawdesley `Amateur Dramatic Society’s  production of the “Snow Queen”written by the very talented Emma Meen. This was a very funny pantomime and as I have said many times before the measure of a good pantomime is the reaction from the audience and this audience really enjoyed themselves.The story follows the antics of the cold hearted Snow Queen as she tries with the help of her son and her henchmen to kidnap Astrid a  young girl  from the village who has a warm heart and is beautiful inside and out, and could be the Snow Queen’s nemesis. To stop this happening the Snow Queen  has a plan  to turn Astrid’s heart cold just like hers, but does her plan work?
There was an experience production team of Director Debbie Wells, Assistant Director Bridget Welch and Musical Director Judy Blakemore who had at their disposal an enthusiastic cast that included actors of all age groups, this resulted in a very enjoyable show. It’s not often that the baddie is the lead in a Pantomime but here we have the Snow Queen played  with icy malevolence by Emma Meen who not only suited the part but also looked the part with a beautiful costume and lovely hair and makeup. Prince Erik the Snow Queens son  was very nicely played by Erin Lee Smith, he is sent by his mother to reluctantly  make Astrid fall in love with him so he can lure her to the palace, but instead Eric falls in love with Astrid and refuses to carry out his mother’s plan. Erin was excellently  complemented by Laura Tingle who had a lovely singing voice as the warm hearted kind Astrid,Erin and Laura  made a very good believable  pantomime couple.Astrid had two  loyal comedic friends called Olga and Ralph  played  respectively with good understanding of comedy which belied their age by   Esme Beesley and Ava Lloyd.  Two other excellent Comedy characters were Igor, Phil Quinn and Ivor, Libby Cowburn who delivered the shopping to the Palace, they worked very well together and made a superb comedy duo, coping really well with audience input. Toby Hewitt added to the comedy and laughter (beard as well)as  a very good Dame named Granny Silvio the Snow Queens mother,Toby also has a great singing voice to add to his talents. The Queen was guarded  by  a number of rather inept  comedic security men,  who were Peter Rodgers as head security guard Hackett, with Will Lloyd as Garth, Hayley Gaskell as Gunnar and George Gottig as Gustav- The young actors in the smaller supporting roles all appeared to be really enjoying themselves and supported the principle cast excellently producing some lovely characters of their own they were, Adam Jackson as Fredrik,  Rebecca Roe as Ingrid-, Olivia Smallshaw as Siri, Katie Poole as Vernon the snowman who opened the pantomime and popped up throughout the show  and  the ice people,Grace Lenehan, Jodie Poole and Alexander Irish.There were also two lovely dancers, Esme Beesley and Ashley Bennett who danced the choreography by Miss Aimee beautifully. Musical numbers were accompanied either by backing tracks or a keyboard played  by Musical Director Judy Blakemore, which worked very well in this venue.
Some thought must have gone into the set which made you feel you were in a world of snow and ice. I partially enjoyed the falling  snow which added to the atmosphere and I think some of the younger cast enjoyed it as well. Costumes were colourful and just right for the show and along with very good technical input added to the success of the show. Well done to all the backstage workers and set builders.
This original Pantomime was a very enjoyable entertaining show, congratulations to all who had a part in bringing it to the stage and thank you very much for a lovely welcoming afternoons entertainment.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.