The Snow Queen by Alan P. Frayn

~~A delightful Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, when a splinter of glass mirror belonging to The Snow Queen enters young Kai’s eye making him heartless. She kidnaps Kai, resulting in determined friend Gerda setting out on a journey through Scandinavia to find him. She must thaw his iced heart and with some help along the way, she defeats The Snow Queen. Frayn’s adaptation has created a panto with wonderful rhyme between good and bad, much humour from cawny jokes add the attractive scenery, jolly music, some mischief, a talking reindeer, a raven who says, ‘cawl me Caw’ lives in a acawn tree – and lots more like that, Granny Fanny Annie with a bit of slapstick, and audience participation ‘global warming’ - a perfect recipe.
Mary Barnes was at the piano and David Fenner on the drums once more, took us on a musical journey, opening with a Sleigh Ride.
Set design by Kate Gale gave a colourful, fully shelved library,  comfy armchair for Narrator Hans, read by Nick Jeal  one corner of stage, with Granny’s beamed attic depicted on the other and stage edged with fairy lights. The curtains opened on a deep snow clad village scene. Beautiful backdrops along the journey showed us the seasons, finally to an enchanting ice palace. Good props and lovely sleigh pulled by loyal hunchback, shuffling Henrick, and what a magical snowman!
A mixture of traditional and national costumes, with strong colour schemes from Val Dormady of The Costume Place and Naomi Berwick, perfect hand props, plenty of sparkle, a lovable reindeer outfit and of course perfect blacks and mask for Caw. Three super ensembles with colourful wigs to match for Dame Granny – poor Peter in the audience, he did get picked on but what a good sport he was!  Great comedy during a Hippy scene Sunbeam Jackie looking slightly larger than when I last saw her, wonderful wigs and what great John Lennon specs for Vicky Fehler – ‘peace man’ Ziggy.
From Dan Godfrey and Brett Lewis we had good sound and colourful effects - some puffs of fairy stardust a little early and certainly a bit smelly! A realistic rushing river, and a great burst of streamers for the finale.
Ray Hodges directed an enjoyable panto over many hours of rehearsal. Great banter between good and bad. Mark Richardson as sweet shop proprietress Granny Fanny Annie was strong in character, cheeky and well supported by Toby Champneys as Helmut, sporting a colourful helmet, he of many cawny jokes, young Gerda charmingly played by Abbie Tagg, together with another of the Richardson family, James playing young Kai. Debuts for some of the cast – encouraging to have new members sample the fun of panto – I’m sure they’ll be ready for more!  Some poignant moments – the Lapp Lady played by Jackie Fry surrounded by the children, one. Flowers and animals came to life, Rufus a very articulate reindeer and Caw a speaking raven. Various characters took us through the wonderful journey, combining script with musical numbers, including ‘Rufus the Red Nosed Reindeer’ when children from the audience were encouraged to join in on stage. A strong wicked performance from Sarah Champneys, costumed in a stunning turquoise gown, silver locks and tiara as The Snow Queen, was defeated by good and the four seasons were reunited with their Mother. 

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