The Snow Queen

Silverdale’s panto production for 2024 was The Snow Queen (or as it states in the programme, a version of the Snow Queen) a usual pantomime favourite.

The casting of the show was very strong and well chosen. 

While I will not name check each character, I should note that The Snow Queen herself, Cryogenica, played by Pete Rushton was a fabulous comical effort, with an amusing repeated snigger that kept the audience giggling, but with enough venom to make younger audiences quietly nervous.  

The dame of this production, Dame Prudence Puddleduck, was beautifully performed by John Aukland. John knows exactly how to get the audience onside and keep them there without ever overstepping the mark. Both really took their roles to heart and did excellent jobs with each, well done.  

Shout out to Privates Grubb and Grime (Rachael Shone and Muriel Hildrew) - must admit, it took a while to recognise Rachael, such was her acting prowess.

One of the highlights (amongst many) of the show for me was the super performance of the abominable snowman played beautifully by Bob Peck.  He showed great stage presence and was a delight to watch.

There really wasn't a weak link in this production, from Snow Queen to Ice Cream server, everyone did themselves proud.

Silverdale ensured there were plenty of opportunities for visual comedy, physical gags which are a favourite among the younger audiences, but we all actually get a childlike delight from.  

This production included a voice activated ice cream machine which would squirt ice cream in the wrong direction, another scene where a shopping list was being misinterpreted as part of a phone call, and complicated but misunderstood instructions… “the bowl with the mole not the bowl with the hole”… These and more served as a delight to myself and many of the younger members near me in the audience.

The story was well delivered and mostly had good pace. 

I was quite surprised that the mirror – nicely visualised and broken on stage didn’t make another appearance, but that goes down to the writing. 

The choice of songs worked well though I did feel some people seemed less comfortable with singing than with their acting, and it did get me wondering if something could have been done to make this work better for those cast members, because they were clearly happy again once the song was over.  Perhaps this could have been aided by sharing these particular songs with a few more cast members, or possible use of a microphone for these moments.  When cast members seem uncomfortable, it translates to audience members feeling uncomfortable.  That said, this occurred only a couple of times and seemed isolated to one or two musical numbers

All in all the story of the Snow Queen was well told and the audience were with them all throughout.  

Staging was clean and simple with a nice use of appropriate backdrops and a good range of props.  Most transitions were relatively quick with prop choices good and appropriate.

The sound was good – very clear diction from all of the cast (aside from the song issue mentioned earlier) and good use of effects and backing tracks.  The lighting was well designed and implemented as well.

Choreography was simple and effective – with some nice use of movement throughout.

The director, Pete Barfoot, who I believe was new to directing should be incredibly pleased with the production. 

The one thing I`ll say about Silverdale is that the production values the society has are clearly carried across from production to production, and because of this, the production came across really well.

Well done on a really good production and thank you for your hospitality.

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