The Snow Queen

This was an interesting production, it had lots going for it, but it was let down in places. I think it would have been advisable to have announced at the start that the part of Hans would be played be the director and that the part of Olaf was also substituted due to illness. This would have explained a couple of things that didn’t seem right.

There was some fluctuation in sound, not sure what caused that. One of the problems was the blackout during scene changes, some of which felt quite long, maybe you need to look at some appropriate music being played to cover these, the crossovers in front of the tabs were quite slow in taking place and it would be worth examining how to make this quicker as it slowed the pace of the show and would enable the show to finish earlier, 10.30 is quite late for a Panto. Some of the music ended very abruptly, maybe a fade would have sounded better. Some of the youngster’s diction was not very clear, I had difficulty at times understanding what Helmut was saying. I am unable to specifically mention singing and songs as there is no list of musical numbers or the singers in the programme, the quality varied at times although the company songs were nice and clear.

As I said at the start there was also a lot going for this production, there were some nice performances and I would particularly pick out Sarah Melia as the Snow Queen with her henchman Freddie Hemming as Henrik, both polished performances, good costumes, good make-up and they interacted well with each other, dialogue good and clear. Perfect as a pair of baddies, the age difference worked very well and the contrast between white and black was effective, well done to both of you.

This show revolves around the characters of Gerda – Mia Holley and Kai – Lee Clifton and these were two good performances, well portrayed and confidently performed, clear dialogue, Lee improves with each production he appears in (don’t lose him) but needs a bit of variation in his dialogue as although he speaks nice and clearly he can be quite loud. Unfortunately, although Harrison as Helmut had a lively and energetic performance, his dialogue was sometimes difficult to understand so that some of his jokes, I felt fell flat. Despite these comments these three worked well together and portrayed the characteristics of their characters, for Mia friendly, confused and searching, for Lee the change from warm and friendly to cold  and distant and back again, for Harrison, the live spark and joker, together they had a good pantomime.

I wasn’t sure about Granny Fanny-Annie – Lynne Martin, she put her heart and soul into the role, had wonderful costumes, but she didn’t carry me with her as a Pantomime Dame, I felt that the scene with the Walking frame was too slow although this may have been more to do with the direction than her performance. Having said that, Granny’s sweet shop scene was a gem with the timing of the dialogue and interaction with her customer – Pam Purple very effective and very funny.

There were some great cameo roles, Kayleigh Hellard as Snowdrop, Harriet Melia as Caw (did her voice hold out?) and Carrie-Ann Lister as Ziggy. 

The Company as a whole performed well and there were some great company scenes particularly enjoying the closing scene of Act 1 – The Spring Flower Garden and the opening scene of Act 2 – The Summer of Love, great company performances in both dialogue movement and singing, the Company had got into the swing of the show by then as the Choreography during the number ‘Let it Snow’ was a bit over the place. Having said that the three dancing girls who were the Snow Geese were very good.

There was some excellent scenery with the back cloths in particular, and the set for Granny’s sweet shop with all the appropriate props, Costumes were good, a lot of work had gone into making these scene appropriate again mentioning the two scenes picked out above and the make-up was effective especially The Snow Queen and Henrik. There were some good Lighting effects, the lighting for The Summer of Love was most appropriate and the Snow machine was used wisely and to good effect.

All in all, this was a good effort for a pantomime that is not that often performed as most Hans Christian Anderson stories are quite short and therefore need to be stretched out.

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