The Snow Queen. Theatre At The Tabard.

Theatre At The Tabard’s approach to Christmas productions—traditional, even conservative child-friendly fare that eschews panto—has served the venue well in recent years. Last year saw a well-received production of The Secret Garden with E Nesbit’s Five Children and It getting an outing the year before. This year the same in-house creative team brings to the stage a solidly engaging take on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of friendship, love, and resilience, The Snow Queen. Teens may find it a little hard going, but younger kids will find plenty to enjoy, and there is enough retro charm here to keep the adults involved.

A devilish troll crafts a powerful mirror that distorts reality, making the good appear ugly and the bad seem worse. Imagine a fairytale version of watching GB News for an hour: “It knows your heart and will tell you what you want to hear”, we are told. When the mirror shatters, shards as small as grains of sand scatter across the world, penetrating all those they touch. Get a grain in your eye, and you will see only the worst of the world. Should one lodge in your heart, it will make you cold, cruel and indifferent to the suffering of others. The GB News analogy works here too.

In an idyllic small town, Gerda (Rosie Kahlon, smiling, kind, and empathic) and Kai (Cameron Chalmers, bubbly and enthusiastic) are devoted, platonic best friends forever. They skate, play with snowballs and spinning tops, and sing carols to the red roses they grow. Kai’s kind Grandma (Maeve Elmore takes a host of other roles, too) sits knitting by the fire, bestowing words of wisdom to the inseparable duo. But then, blown by an unlucky wind, a splinter of the magic mirror lodges in Kai’s heart. Overnight the kindly child turns into a stroppy, uncommunicative, and just plain mean teen. Parents may identify with this bit. “My Kai is slipping away,” says Gerda.  “Stupid girl, what does she know” is the lad’s response. “I won’t give up on him,” says Gerda, and she means it. “Love can melt the coldest heart,” says Grandma by way of fortuitous foreshadowing of the show’s moral message.

The weather outside is frightful. “The white bees are swarming”, commanded by the frosty figure of the Snow Queen (Freya Crompton rolling her eyes and channelling the iciest, sullen estate agent imaginable). Stroppy Kai thinks it is OK to play in a blizzard, an unwise move. The Snow Queen, a metaphorical incarnation of the temptations and corruptions of adult life, lures the boy away to her icy palace high in the mountains of Lapland. “You are special,” she tells the bewitched youngster, seducing him into forgetting all about his life in the country. Devastated but determined, Gerda dons her lucky red shoes and embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her friend and return him home, perhaps a little older and wiser. Will the light of kindness prevail over frigid darkness, and love over fear?

On her quest, Gerda encounters helpers in the form of a crow who talks like Star Wars’ Yoda and a reindeer called Bae, the life-size puppets beautifully rendered by Jen Marcus and manipulated by Caitlin Wood. Anticipate encounters with the cast in the form of a witch (“We’re falling over witches out here,” we are told), bandits, a princess named Caroline, and a mysterious woman with a bubbling cooking pot who assures Gerda “You alone have the power to defeat the Snow Queen”.

Louise Haddington’s adaptation is by the book but has immense charm. It stays close to the original and wisely eschews the temptation to over-egg the moral message; kids can generally work this stuff out for themselves. Reilly’s direction keeps the piece moving, and a nifty piece of misdirection facilitates one of the more challenging scene changes. Nat Green’s lighting cleverly evokes the antagonist’s arctic realm with long shadows and hazy rays of sun. Nick Gilbert’s sound adds a touch of classical music to the mix.

STAR RATING:  3 stars

Writer:  Hans Christian Andersen (adapted by Louise Haddington)

Director:  Simon Reilly