The Lyceum Christmas show is a much-loved tradition – taking well-known stories and transplanting them into the Scottish landscape.
This new musical adaptation of The Snow Queen, directed by Cora Bisset, lends itself perfectly to the format. Kei and Gerda’s friendship begins in the attic of an Edinburgh Old Town tenement – before their adventures lead them to the wild and mysterious lands of the Highlands and the North beyond.
Hans Anderson’s tale is full of strange folkloric elements and writer Morna Young retains them – bringing us trolls, fairies, enchanted flowers and talking birds.
It’s a tale of friendship, bravery and love – with a strong female lead. Rosie Graham is a tremendous Gerda – fighting, singing and melting hearts with her purity and strength.
Sebastian Lim-Seet, with his electric viola, is a lovely Kei, playing the captured and enchanted boy with sweetness and charm.
Original lyrics by Morna Young and Finn Anderson are set to music by Shonagh Murray in rock opera style, with soaring ballads and raucous battle songs.
The actors sing and play a variety of instruments, helping to carry the emotion of the story of love, friendship and a spell that must be broken.
And it’s genuinely funny. Hamish the Unicorn, played with high theatrical camp by Richard Conlon will have you spluttering with laughter as he gabbles, gossips, flirts and fills the theatre with inconvenient rainbows.
Samuel Pashby as Corbie the Crow also does a fine comic turn as the evil henchman who transforms into a hero, with plenty of pitfalls along the way.
The real villain of the piece, the Snow Queen, Claire Dargo is a cold, imperious megalomaniac, scheming to imprison animals, flowers and humans in a world of ice. She’s deliciously wicked – a proper baddie.
The talent and coordination in this company are a treat. Excellent songs, superb writing and eleven supremely versatile performers, who sing, play and take on various additional roles as the quest moves through the supernatural landscape.
Emily James’ set is marvellously inventive – employing mirror images of the Lyceum’s ornate balconies, which swivel around to display different scenes in the story. The scenes of Edinburgh are particularly evocative – in the great tradition of the Lyceum Christmas.
The costumes are lovely too – created with a bright, hearty fairytale exuberance with plenty of glitter when called for.
It’s a tremendously entertaining show, with real heart, which captures the strange magic of Anderson’s tale of good, evil and a world out of balance. It’s not a pantomime – it’s a Lyceum Christmas show – a perfect delight for a dark winter night. How lucky are the children who will experience the theatre in such a wonderful way.
As always, it is magical when the show is at its end, to step out of the theatre and find yourself back in the same enchanting Edinburgh cityscape you have just seen recreated on the stage. Will there be snow? You hope so.
