The Snow Queen

Whitwell Players were is great form for this interpretation of the ‘Snow Queen’ pantomime.  The enthusiasm of the performances from the entire company, be they Principal, Dancer or Chorus, was very evident.  Both the cast and their audience were clearly enjoying sharing a fun packed afternoon with a ‘North Nottingham Twist’ (in the dialogue and mining references), that I thought were just ‘reete’.

Every pantomime needs a good villain or two – and in the Snow Queen herself (Nic Pelham), we had just the right balance of threat and comedy - ably supported by her incompetent side-kicks Snowbell (Paul Wood) performing in thick bottle top glasses to great effect and the sarcastic Jack Frost (Luke Fletcher).  Their delivery of ‘Men in White’ was particularly effective.

Luke Neeve and Jeannie Raspin shone as ‘Dame’ Granny Rose and Handy Annie and together drove the main audience participation of the performance including some very polished ‘business’ and musical delivery – ‘Total Eclipse’ was a definite highlight.

The principal boy/girl roles were nicely handled by Fern Morris (Gerda) and Tayla Davie (Kay) and I particularly liked that these roles were played traditionally with Fern and Tayla never dropping out of character throughout.

Joanna Thorpe (Summer Queen), Gary Williams (Grandfather), Lewis Salter (Mayor), Laura Barrett (Mayoress) and Shirley Hill (Old Lady) all provide support to the pace of the afternoon along with  enthusiastic Dancers and Chorus which included some very young and gifted performers.

The comedy trio of ‘Grannies’ (Julie Cookson, Sarah Reynolds and Fiona Kirk) stole the show at the start of Act 2 with the ‘Grannies Folk Song’ an original composition by MD Peter Lack  and also provided great comedic timing in all of their scenes throughout.

Peter and Joanna had obviously spent a good deal of time with great attention to detail in this production with really enjoyable Choreography from Kaisha that all the performers seemed to be having fun with.  Lighting, Sound and Wardrobe provided great support to the show as did the blizzard of snow at the final curtain.

Many thanks for a very enjoyable afternoon and I look forward to seeing you again in 2016.

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