A THRILLING modern update of a classic fairytale with an original score runs at Dundee Rep until Hogmanay.
For their family adventure adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s epic fable The Snow Queen, the theatre teamed up again with Noisemaker, the writing team behind 2016 Rep hit Little Red and The Wolf, and the creative team behind last year’s A Christmas Carol.
With Young Scottish Musical Theatre Performer of the Year 2017 Chiara Sparkes starring as Gerda, the brave girl who has to save her friend Kai (Ross Baxter) from the formidable Snow Queen (Sophie Reid), the Rep team say the reworked tale is one they have wanted to tell for some time. Also in the cast are fondly held veterans of the Rep, Ann Louise Ross and Irene MacDougall, a founder member of Stellar Quines and a star of Joe Douglas’s excellent revival of The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil.
As the Rep’s artistic director Andrew Panton explains, he knew it was Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie, the award-winning duo known as Noisemaker, he wanted to enlist to uncover new voices in the story, first published in 1844.
“They are the premier writing team for new musical theatre in Scotland, says Panton, who has worked with the pair on several collaborations over the past few years. “In the way they tell stories, they have a particularly unique voice in musical theatre. In this classic fairytale they have found a contemporary resonance which really speaks to our times.”
Gilmour and McKenzie have interpreted Andersen’s story as one about the legacy that present generations leave to those coming after them.
“It’s about how the next generation don’t have much of a say in what they’ve been left with, and how they respond to it,” he says. “In The Snow Queen, it’s about the danger of the snow and why children get lost to it, and it has resonance in terms of the many ways in which we’re passing on a world that’s flawed; about how we’ve obviously messed up in a lot of ways, like how we’ve treated the planet. Looking at the responsibly we share for each other’s future is a message that felt important to explore and bring to light.”
A key element of The Snow Queen is Noisemaker’s songs, which are used to further the narrative.
“It’s storytelling through words, through dialogue, through movement, through song,” Panton says.
“It’s about finding lots of ways to tell that story, and I think that’s what I enjoy the most. Young people want to be told stories, but gone are the days when you could occupy someone with just words.
“For many people, theatre at this time of year was our first introduction to what can happen when you take a big dark room, fill it with actors, music, movement, and a great story and, of course, an audience.”
Until December 31 (not Tue), Dundee Rep, 7pm, matinee 2.30pm, £12 to £27, children £12. Tel: 01382 223530
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