Review: The Snow Queen, Stephen Joseph Theatre

Photo credit: Tony Bartholomew

At first glance, the idea of Hans Christian Anderson’s tale The Snow Queen being performed as a one-woman show is ambitious; the amount of characters needed to tell the classic tale alone should make this idea impossible. But somehow Nick Lane’s adaptation, performed and filmed at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, pulls it off, and pulls it off well.

In large part this is down to a brilliant performance from the always wonderful Polly Lister. Over the course of the show, she plays a huge range of characters, including but not limited to Kai, Gerda, Len the Reindeer, Gran, the raven and of course the eponymous Snow Queen herself. She switches between these characters at speed, often with just the help of a simple prop, an accent change, or a small item of costume.

I was originally intrigued when I heard that this production of The Snow Queen (one of my all-time favourite stories) would be a one-woman show. Would they manage to cram all of the magic, changing scenes, characters, journey, and plot into a show for just one person to perform without losing any of its charm, magic, and message? Well, in short, yes. This adaptation cleverly makes one of our characters the central narrator; the sorceress of Summer, who both narrates the action from the outside and jumps into the story to play all the characters, at times simultaneously, resulting in Lister often running about the stage like a whirlwind, or switching costumes multiple times throughout a scene. There is a danger that using one person to play all of the characters could descend into a chaotically, confusing play that is hard to follow, with no one fully sure who is currently speaking. The Snow Queen manages to avoid this, thanks to a clever script and a series of remarkably simple, but effective tricks such as puppetry, accents, costume changes and colours.

Directed by Paul Robinson, the show is a real treat for the whole family, especially the younger members who will love the wackiness of the characters and the way Lister interacts with the audience, particularly the distinct nods to another Christmas tradition of panto. Lister’s Snow Queen is your typical pantomime villain, complete with revelling in the audience ‘boos’. There is also more than a passing resemblance to the traditional pantomime dame in the character of Kai’s Gran, which the audience particularly enjoyed.

A highlight of the show for me was the brilliantly catchy original songs which were used throughout; the music, lyrics (and sound design) of the production of which were devised by Olivier Award-winning composer Simon Slater. We are also introduced to a DJ Hedgehog Jean-Claude, who provides the accompaniment to the evening and proves to be very popular with the young audience in attendance.

The show was filmed with an audience and I certainly felt this helped the performance along. It was such an interactive production, with Lister often referencing or talking to the children in the theatre.

In short, SJT’s production of The Snow Queen is well worth a watch and is sure to be a big hit with audiences.

The rest of the show’s creative team includes Helen Coyston (Design), Paul Steer (Lighting and Video Design), Gemma Fairlie (Movement and Puppet Direction), Chelsey Gillard (Associate Director), Simon Slater (Musical Director) and Sarah Hughes CDG (Casting Director). The production is produced by Daniel Abell for the SJT.

The Snow Queen is available online until 31 January 2021, tickets cost £12 and allows access to the 1 hour 40 minute film for a week. It can be accessed via the SJT website here.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Amy Louise