**** (4 stars)
“A wonderfully entertaining show”
Scottish Ballet’s Snow Queen showcases everything that makes the company’s productions so special and enjoyable: superb dancing to a live orchestra, a company of individuals rather than soloists with a faceless, homogenous corps, lively children’s participation and excellent storytelling. It’s the perfect Christmas treat, and a splendid introduction to the world of ballet for anyone who doesn’t know anything about dance.
The Snow Queen lives in a far-distant ice palace with her sister, the Summer Princess. They quarrel when the princess sees in the queen’s enchanted mirror a vision of herself embracing a young man. She goes to find him, disguising herself as a young man, Lexi. Her sister the queen is alone and furious: in her rage, she shatters the magic mirror.
Lexi is making her living as a pickpocket on the fringes of a busy town, using a shard of the magic mirror to protect herself. One day she sees the young man of her vision: it’s Kai, but he’s in love with Gerda, and asks her to marry him. Suddenly the action freezes: the Snow Queen arrives to ask Lexi to come back home. When she refuses, the Queen blows dust from Lexi’s mirror shard into Kai’s eyes. He becomes a frozen, heartless monster who repudiates Gerda. A circus arrives and brings light, colour and fun into a drab urban scene: but a trick involving Kai goes wrong and he disappears, leaving Gerda alone and heartbroken. She begs Lexi for help.
Gerda and Lexi arrive at the gypsy encampment, seeking help from Mazelda the fortune teller. She tells Gerda that Kai is under the Snow Queen’s enchantment and he cannot be rescued. Undaunted, Gerda sets off through the forest and, despite the best efforts of snow wolves, jackfrosts and snowflakes, reaches the ice palace. Gerda tries unsuccessfully to remind Kai of their relationship. The Snow Queen attacks her, and it’s only Lexi’s reappearance as the Summer Princess, ready to give up her freedom in exchange for Kai, that enables the young lovers to be reunited as Kai’s heart melts.
Overall, it was a very good performance, and much of the criticism I have is good. In the opening village scene there’s so much going on that you can’t possibly see everything – and I really want to, because every dancer on stage is a living personality with an agenda of their own and I want to watch them all. There’s so much going on that it’s easy to miss what Lexi’s doing – the trouble she gets into, the potential disasters narrowly averted. When the circus irrupts into the midst of all this mayhem, things become even more wonderfully complicated – I want to watch the individual performers, the crowd’s reaction to them, the drama between Lexi, Kai and Gerda: and it’s just impossible!
What stood out for me was the performance of Benjamin Thomas’s Ringmaster – I couldn’t take my eyes off him even when Thomas Edward’s cocky little Strong Man was blithely tossing his Ballerina, Alice Kawalek into the air. I wanted to follow the Acrobats, Rishan Benjamin and Elizabeth Williams – their contortions on the stage of the tiny theatre looked fascinating – and the Clowns (James Garrington and Andrea Azzari) were also demanding attention which I couldn’t always give them. Later on, in the gypsy encampment it was Benjamin Thomas who drew my eye again, though Grace Horler’s Mazelda was another strikingly powerful dancer.
And of course there’s the amazing violinist Gill Risi, strolling through the whirling gypsy dancers (all of whom are superbly athletic and eye-catching) who astounds with her fiery, dramatic playing. No wonder her curtain call – and that of the whole Scottish Ballet orchestra under Martin Yates – received some of the loudest applause of the night.
It was, sadly, the principal characters whom I found slightly underwhelming. It’s hard for Kai (Bruno Micchiardi) once he gets the glass fragments in his eye. Up till then he’s been the charming, hopeful suitor who is delighted to have his proposal to Gerda accepted: after that he becomes a bit of a sulky boy puppet, obeying the demands of the Snow Queen and basically being a bit of a git. Kayla-Maree Tarantolo’s Gerda danced beautifully, but didn’t really get much opportunity to display her inner fire, even when trying to get her engagement ring back from Lexi. Lexi herself (Melissa Polson) was a brilliant dancer, but had to spend much of her time being disappointed: I felt really sorry for her when she made the sacrifice of returning to her sister’s palace, a moment which I felt passed rather too quickly.
Jessica Fyfe’s Snow Queen was also a superb dancer but she really didn’t make me shiver with fear nor even want to boo her furiously. She goes around bullying everyone, and isn’t even particularly pleased to get her sister back: I don’t envy the two of them trying to get along in their ice palace…
This aside, Snow Queen is a wonderfully entertaining show and, as I’ve said, a superb introduction to ballet. My companion had never been to the ballet before, and loved it, as did the whole of the Festival Theatre audience. The show is a lovely way to enjoy the magic of the festive season, and I’m really glad to have seen it again – not least to see some of the Mary Queen of Scots dancers in wildly different roles! Meanwhile, I’m looking forward enormously to seeing Scottish Ballet’s fabulously entertaining gender-swapping Cinderella next Christmas, together with all the other delights waiting for me in 2026.
Scottish Ballet presents The Snow Queen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh runs until Sunday 7th December for more information and tickets go to: https://www.capitaltheatres.com/shows/scottish-ballet-the-snow-queen/
The production will tour to Glasgow Theatre Royal, Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre and Inverness Eden Court Theatre.
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