The Snow Queen At Waterside Theatre, Sale In Trafford Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Dottie Rood
It’s the start of our family Christmas activities and one of our first outings is to go and see the Snow Queen at Waterside theatre in Sale, Trafford in Greater Manchester. I was taking four very excited granddaughters, age ranging from 5 years-old to nearly 11-year-old (with an 8-year-old and nearly 7-year-old included).
None of them knew the original story of the Snow Queen, a Hans Christian Andersen tale that tells the story of Kay and Gerda, when Gerda falls victim to a cursed mirror and becomes afflicted and very unkind to Kay she continues to love him and uses this to keep going through her long and dangerous journey ultimately re-enforcing the power of love and good versus evil, which was probably a good thing as this story was nothing like the original!
We were made very welcome when we arrived at The Waterside theatre, the children were given milk and cookies for the show, and the children’s excitement grew, so when we went in and saw the lovely blue/white and obviously icy set in a lovely intermate space they were thrilled. We took our seats and waited with anticipation, the theatre turned dark and the Snow Queen entered! (played by Richard Priestly), they all laughed out loud, he was dressed in a white jump suit, had on sparkly white high shoes, a brilliant head band and bright blue make up! Oh, and a moustache! They loved him straight away.
The story that followed was a very relevant and current subject for us all, climate change. Lumi (a small girl played by Amy Tara) enters and lets us know her concerns for the environment and the fact that it hasn’t snowed for a very long time. She communicates her concerns with her mum (Molly played by Grace Culter, who also plays Horton the tortoise, Flash the polar bear and Oops the ‘official operations provider’ at the North Pole) through dialect and songs, with input through playing musical instruments, joining in the songs and some brilliant facial expression from the Snow Queen.
Lumi decides to write to the Snow Queen, on numerous occasions, with no success! So she decides to go and find the Snow Queen and ask her to make it snow so the climate might begin to cool. Off she goes and, on the way, meets Horton the tortoise, who doesn’t know the meaning of recycling and keeps everything! And Flash the polar bear, who has every electrical device there is and doesn’t realise what damage he is doing, and Oops the ‘official operations provider, who helps her finally find the Snow Queen. The songs, actions and brilliant acting tells the story in a way that children can be encouraged to start to understand this very real problem in an innovative and thought-provoking way.
We all enjoyed the show and when I asked my Granddaughters what they thought and who they enjoyed watching they all chose a different actor and had a slightly different answer. The youngest knew that Lumi wanted the Snow Queen to make it snow but not sure why, she loved the Snow Queen saying, “she’s very funny and I liked her shoes”, the middle two both knew it needed to snow because it was, “getting too warm but it’s very cold tonight!”, the eldest then tried to explain to them her understanding of climate change/global warming. Her understanding was quite good and I was really pleased that not only did they enjoy the show they seemed to learn something along the way and it encouraged them to talk about it. The two middle granddaughters both chose Flash as their favourite character as, “he was really funny with a brilliant accent!”, (I think it might have been American?) and the oldest granddaughter loved them all and was able to give a reason why (for all of them!).
The Snow Queen was performed by Wrongsemble, The Albany & ARC co-production company, a Yorkshire based company who have won the prestigious Child Friendly Leeds award for Inspiring Creativity through Arts and Culture in 2020. The creative team are:
Director/Writer: Elvi Piper
Designer: Antony Jones
Creative Producer: Chermeana Lacey
Musical Director/Composer: Rosie Fox
Stage Manager: Heather Newsham
Lighting Design: Alistair Fox
Associate Artist: Edith Kirkwood
I feel they, along with the actors mentioned all deserve a mention, as a small production this was lovely, and I would recommend it. I need to mention Grace Cutler as a standout performer, she had a different accent and ‘character’ for each of the parts she played which was very enjoyable to watch. The running time is 60 minutes (no interval) so is just long enough for younger children, even if they might not quite understand the ‘deeper’ story.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost: £16/£14/£7 low income/£12 schools
The Snow Queen is at Waterside, 1 Waterside Plaza Sale Trafford M337ZF
From: Wednesday 29th November to Saturday 30th December 2023
To book tickets: 01619125616 / watersidearts.org
For images: Production images 2023 Credit Jason Lock