The Snow Queen

It may be February but it’s still panto season in Southsea and there was lots of fun to be had last night at the Trinity Theatre with Phoenix Players’ latest evening of silliness, The Snow Queen. Written by co-Director Sass Adams, it was full of local references, corny old jokes and loads of opportunities for the audience to join in, booing and hissing the baddies and cheering on the goodies. In short, everything that a good panto should have. Sass had also cleverly woven in a lot of references to Disney shows, especially Frozen, which all the kids in the audience loved but, I’m embarrassed to admit, I had to have explained to me by my companion, as I’m not a big fan of Disney!

The show galloped along at a terrific pace, and we soon got to know the characters. The evil Snow Queen, Katherine Farrelly, looked every inch the part in a beautiful sparkling costume with fantastic headdress and staff. Her ice palace, front stage right, was amazing, built into the ice and well adorned. Great credit to the huge team of set constructors and painters as this standard was maintained throughout the show. Props too (Sonia Hill) were really well made, sometimes just to make a very brief appearance. Costumes too (Lydia Shepherd) were nicely colourful and good quality. Great production standards here.

Katherine has a wonderful singing voice and looked like she relished every minute as the evil Queen, trying to take over the world whilst bossing around her reluctant sidekick, Jackie Frost. Jackie was very ably played by Ivy Burrows, in amiable knockabout style. Dylan Gover made a great friendly Yeti, Yorgan, with another excellent costume, especially the head. Hero of the hour was Sonia Hill in good thigh-slapping form as Prince Kai. She was well paired with Sophie Castle as Gerda, and they made a very believable couple. Every panto needs a Dame and Andy Ripley fitted the bill perfectly as Gerda’s mother Sally Sizzle, running the local sausage shop. He had great repartee with the audience and some wonderful costumes and wigs.

The army of good fairies was led by Jo Webb as Fairy Topsy, with Lynda Saunders as Fairy Flopsy and Steven Penfold as their apprentice Bob. What a wonderfully daft trio they made, marching on and off stage and providing a lot of the humour in the show whilst saving the day by getting the audience to work their magic for them. Chris Wrein was majestic as Mayor Camembert (cue a lot of cheese puns) and Suki Jones, in dark glasses and black shirt, made a fine Fairy Godmother.

Lighting, designed by Andy Impey (some impressive looking kit you’ve got now) and sound (Bailey Smith) were excellent, and even sitting in the back row just about everyone was heard loud and clear. As always, your full colour programme (Sass Adams again) looked great and contained all the information we needed – a model of clarity.

While the first act may have been a little long for the endurance of some of the younger members of the audience, I think it was clear from our response at the end that everyone had a brilliant time! Ooh – I mustn’t forget to mention the merchandise seller (Sophie Nickerson), what a great job she did pushing the light-up wands, rings and glasses!

Phoenix Players, you are a very welcoming, inclusive and innovative group. It is always a pleasure to come to your shows and I think this panto was the best yet. We all had a great laugh and come away with lighter hearts, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

Well done everyone!

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