Review: The Snow Queen

The classic H. C. Andersen story ‘The Snow Queen’ becomes part of a very British festive tradition, with musical sing-alongs, slapstick, cross dressing and some light relief from the somewhat reserved crowd of locals on the s-train ride there.

The fourth annual pantomime put on by the Copenhagen Theatre Circle has this time taken a story from the Danish author, whose work has not been renowned for producing musical comedy theatre of this kind.

In a performance riddled with odd tradition, clearly a great deal of work had gone into producing the set, costumes and producing the show. And even with a running time of three hours all the children were still captivated until the third musical encore.

International cast and audience

Copenhagen Theatre Circle is one of the main English-speaking amateur theatre societies.

The main target audience is children and with this Saturday’s matinee already sold out it’s bound to be a great fun says cast member Cheryl Wormsbecker whose début performance as Drizzle the reindeer took the audience’s heart by storm.

While for children, it is for adults too, and is jam-packed with topical references for those who know what Copenhagen and Denmark are about in the world at large: “Did you buy this at Copenhagen Zoo?!” says Snowdrop whilst going to bed under a giraffe blanket.

Fun, thrills and chills for everyone

The story led us into a different world of a wicked queen, a brave hero and an entourage of sidekicks and village folk all giving great performances in a snowy wonderland. But the goodies and baddies will never know who’s good and who’s evil unless the audience gets involved! The sheer amount of sparkles on the costumes were enough to make you believe anything.

If you feel like brushing up on your obscure English slang and obscure references you’re in the right place. And if feel like shamelessly shouting at a man in drag like you’re 8 years old again this is the thing for you.

Or maybe you never did but now is a great time to start.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

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