The Snow Queen (Derby)

“Well, he’s got the children entranced,” said the Duke. “Completely,” agreed the Duchess, to the warm approval of a largely adult first night audience as Hans Christian Anderson’s magical story about the triumph of love over wickedness and evil unfolds at the Derby Theatre.

The former Playhouse’s debut production casts a welcome glow of winter sunshine after a long period in the dark. In choosing Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairy tale The Snow Queen artistic producer Pete Meakin has a real audience pleaser on his hands.

Peter Robert’s lively adaptation has Lewis Hancock’s Anderson dominated by his impish imagination given invisible human form by Daniel Crossley. Beautifully set by Siobhan Ferrie, the story moves from the home of the Duke and Duchess where Anderson’s stories entertain their children through the seven stages of the story, each more engaging than the last.

Gerda, played by Ellie Beaven, goes in search of her friend Kay who had been abducted by the cold-hearted Snow Queen. Along the way to the inevitable happy ending she meets with Trolls and Robbers, a Prince and Princess and a succession of other characters to whom she retells the story of her quest.

Most of the cast take on a variety of roles to great aplomb though none more so than Laura Checkley who dazzles in a succession of performances as the Devil, Gerda’s Grandmother, Mrs Crow and a street wise and dangerous Robber Girl.

Worth special mention, too, is Sean McKenzie’s reindeer – a finely judged comic turn that was one of highlights of the second half.

A thoughtful and engaging production there is much in The Snow Queen that will remain with younger theatregoers in a way that pantomime, however slickly done, simply cannot compete.

– Nick Brunger