Creation Theatre's The Snow Queen

By Robert Iles - 1st Dec 2005

Creation Theatre's winter show, "The Snow Queen" takes place inside one of the hanger-sized presentation rooms at the BMW Cowley plant, home of the New Mini on the Oxford ring-road. I thought I'd miss the Speigel Tent that they usually use but they'd managed to make the 'foyer' area welcoming in their usual inimitable style with a bar and the wonderful Cafe M Creperie that is such a feature of going to see them.

I actually approached the show without any preconceived ideas because, despite all the theatre I have seen, I had somehow managed to never see the Snow Queen before - so I knew nothing of the story and had nothing with which to compare it. I'm really rather glad my first show was Creation's as they're always so creative ... and they didn't let me down. For anyone else who doesn't know this Hans Christian Anderson story, here goes a (very) potted synopsis. The Goblins steal some ice from the Snow Queen and mix it with Goblin magic to create a mirror that will show the worst in everything, but in trying to use it to bring down the angels they drop it and it breaks into many small bits which spread throughout the world. Anyone who gets cut by one of these bits, no matter how small, has all the love and joy taken out of them. Now, Gerda and Kay, two young children who have always been friends, are asleep one night when Kay awakes and sees the Snow Queen go by, getting a bit of the mirror in his eye he turns mean and runs off with her. Gerda, finding him gone, is distraught and sets off to find him. Her quest takes her to many magical places where she overcomes numerous challenges (bandits, witches, a clever princess, more witches!), helped by some crows and a reindeer. She finally finds Kay at the palace of the Snow Queen and saves him through the power of true love and some good crying. Then they go home and, presumably, live happily ever after.

The location of this production allowed Creation to create some very large mobile sets as well as using the enormous depth to create illusions of distance and space. Occasionally the vastenss of the space caused problems with the voices, particularly in the songs, but otherwise it worked to their advantage. At the end I heard several people disappointed that only 6 of the actors came on for the final bow - you could see genuine shock on their faces when they realised that the whole show had only used six actors! Even with all the details in front of me I had to keep checking; the doubling, fast changes, strongly defined characterisations and versatility of this group was, at times, quite breathtaking! The director, Charlotte Conquest, is to be congratulated for choreographing such a small group into such a large tableau in ways that clearly fooled many people.

The story fair licked along with just enough songs to keep it boucy and not so many that they dragged. The Crows (James Hyland and Amanda Haberland) were particularly humerous, better than Disney! And the bandit scene was a real hoot. Victoria Fleming carried off Gerda with great conviction and Annabelle Dowler was just delightful in each of her roles. My sympathies to Richard Vincent as he got Kay (not the brightest penny), a duller part than many but he played it for all it was worth and James Gitsham (with 6 parts) and Jane Kahler (Snow Queen, goblin and a great Bandit Mother) made up the team.

This really was a great night out - thoroughly enjoyable, fresh, lively and enticing. Like many Creation creations, I shall remember it a long time.

Robert Iles