Playgoers of Lethbridge winds up an eventful 100th anniversary season with their pantomime ‘The Snow Queen,’ based on a Hans Christian Andersen short story, Nov. 7-12 at the Sterndale
Bennett Theatre.
Staged in the classic style of British Pantomime, this family friendly show is a re-telling of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen adapted by Allan Frayne.
“ It’s a musical that encourages audience participation, so they are encouraged to boo the Snow Queen, who is the villain in the story,” said director Elaine Jagielski, who has always wanted to put on a pantomime.
“ There are stock characters, they are exaggerated,” Jagielski continued, reminiscing about enjoying seeing pantomimes when she was a child.
“It involves a couple of young individuals who encounter the Snow Queen who is the villain and she does something to one of the characters. It’s about how they try to rectify the wrong. But I don’t want to give away too much about the plot. It is a delightful story,” she said, adding the show has an underlying theme of global warming .
“ The Snow Queen” has a cast of 28 from age 6 to 66 including familiar faces from past Playgoers of Lethbridge productions and veterans of the Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance society.
Shelly David is doing double duty as she is also part of Lethbridge Musical Theatre’s production of ‘The Full Monty: The musical.’
“ I play Rufus in the ‘Snow Queen.’ They’re both smaller parts. The ‘Snow Queen’ has a bigger cast. They’re
both really different but they’re both about family,” said David during a Full Monty rehearsal. The Full Monty runds through Nov. 4.
“ There is a lot of energy and plenty of sing alongs in the Snow Queen. I’ve loved being part of both of them,” David continued.
Jagielski said it has been a challenge working with a large cast, but the cast have made things a lot easier.
“ The cast are wonderful. They’re very encouraging. So it’s been a lot of fun,” Jagielski said, adding the Snow Queen is a great way for Playgoers of Lethbridge to end a hectic 100th Anniversary season.
“This is the perfect play to end the season. it’s a lot of fun and it’s timely. This season has shown a lot of different styles of theatre.”
‘The Snow Queen’ is a family friendly play that runs at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, Nov. 7-12 at 6:30 p.m. each night. there will be a sign language interpreter for the Nov. 9 show.Tickets are $27.25 adults, $16.50 child and $21.75 for students from the Yates Theatre Box Office.
There are also matinees at 1 p.m. Nov 11 and 12.
— by Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
