Snow White

Many thanks to ACB Theatre for inviting me to their original pantomime version of the classic story Snow White. The cast was made up of performers from age 4 through to 16 years old; it was a really nice touch to have all the ages listed in the programme. It is no easy undertaking to cater for children of such a wide age range in one production but I felt everyone was well cast in appropriate roles and it was lovely to see older cast members subtly guiding the younger ones as needed.

The production itself really was a one-woman project with Anna Cross not only writing the script but also directing, choreographing and undertaking musical direction! Technical assistance was provided on the night by Joe Hugill, who ably took care of the sound and lighting; music and vocals were well balanced throughout and the available lighting was used to good effect. The show benefitted from fabulous LED screen backgrounds throughout, which really helped to set the scenes and had been designed ‘in house’. It was nice to see this excellent resource was used simply as an enhancement and not the star of the show. Costumes and the few props used were generally excellent and looked great, although I felt that perhaps the Huntsman’s costume was a little confusing, not clearly depicting their character.

The whole cast performed with great energy throughout and were clearly thoroughly enjoying their time on stage, which was lovely to see. All dialogue was very clearly delivered but on a few occasions the pacing was a bit too deliberate so that it sounded unnatural – just a minor detail to consider moving forward. I was very impressed to see such young performers executing their choreography whilst remembering to remain in character in both movement and facial expressions – well done all! Just one note on non-choreographed movement; although generally, dialogue does need to be delivered out to the audience, be careful not to sacrifice natural movement patterns for the sake of facing straight out towards them, as this can be quite awkward to watch. I must just mention that it was slightly distracting to see one of the main cast members chewing gum on stage (it didn’t seem to be part of their characterisation).

Unfortunately I can’t mention every cast member individually but would like to highlight a few performances. I always feel in pantomimes, those characters leading the audience participation aspects of the production have to work particularly hard and this can be quite a daunting task for children especially, but Sophie Grimshaw and Patience Cosgrave as McFries and Betty both did an excellent job of this. They came across as confident and enthusiastic and got a great, well-earned response from the audience – bravo! 

Another character who elicited excellent audience response was the Evil Queen, very capably played by Lola Connor-Emmott. Lola created a really solid, believable character which she fully committed to from the outset. She also coped very well with the key of her big solo number “One Way Or Another” which was clearly on the lower limits of her vocal range. An excellent all-round performance to be proud of!

William Hitchins delivered a very entertaining, comedic performance as the Magic Mirror – a great character who elicited laughter from the second he spoke his first word. Everything from facial expressions to movement and posture to dialogue delivery was totally in character and William never broke out of this, attending and reacting to all other action on stage when he wasn’t in the spotlight himself. Very nicely done!

Raven, played by Elyssa Rowell, was a smaller character who grabbed my attention due to her naturally amusing, very dry delivery of her dialogue. She really was very funny and I’m not sure she realised how entertaining her performance was – congratulations Elyssa! This performance is just one example which highlighted the quality of the Anna’s script.

I have to say that Alex Hitchins as Grumpy, totally stole the show in his scenes – an 8-year-old with a huge character, played with a confidence beyond his years and clearly thriving off the audience reaction to his very grumpy antics! A fabulous performance and definitely one to watch. Another star of the future is 4-year-old Arthur Geraghty. As one of the Three Pigs, the enthusiasm he put into his dancing was infectious and his face radiated the enjoyment he was clearly experiencing – an absolute joy to watch!

Thanks again for inviting me along to this production; my guest and I enjoyed our evening and I look forward to seeing more ACB productions in the future.

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