The Snow Queen

Published Wednesday 30 November 2005 at 15:35 by Andrew Blades

Like many of the characters in this enchanting fairytale, Creation Theatre Company rarely take the easy way out. The unconventional auditorium of Oxford’s BMW Group Plant has played host to them for several years now but despite the venue’s increasing familiarity, it continues to throw out new inspiration to Creation’s designers and directors.

This time around, the Crystal Maze-like pipes and sheet metal not only strengthen the resolve of the handily named heroine Gerda, they are also fashioned into corrugated ice-sculptures, creating igloos out of industry and a magical Lapland from the magnificent setting, with twice the depth of an ordinary theatrical stage.

Depth of approach is also the order of the day. Director Charlotte Conquest is a veteran of Creation’s Shakespeare programme and it gleams through her take on Hans Christian Andersen. This is not boo-hiss Big Brother in tights panto but nuanced stuff, with nods to Mervyn Peake and the Lewises Carroll and CS. In Act II, some of the surrealism gives way to more familiar elements of slapstick and the occasional racial stereotype. Still, there are plenty of set pieces that children and parents alike should understand on several levels, particularly the sequence in the Clever Castle, steered by Annabelle Dowler’s winningly eccentric Clever Princess. There is also an air of gentleness and genuine wonder in the two leads, played by Victoria Fleming and Richard Vincent, that will stay with you well into the holiday season. As the cast conclude, “the story never ends”.