The Snow Queen: the Ultimate Role Model of Yore

The Snow Queen ©Alan McCredie

When I was young(er) all the usual role models for little girls were lame.

Their function was to be vacuous receptors of praise about their looks, cooking, cleaning and being a great mum.

It was a type of mass hysteria on behalf of the male hegemony (thaim wot got the power, likes) who commissioned, created, manufactured and published those ‘lovely liddle women’.

But fiest will out.

Instead, many of us underground tweenie feminists found our radical inspiration in unusual places.  The Snow Queen was a favourite, along with Cruella DeVille and Baba Yaga.

These characters were single, powerful, rich and witty, oh and beautiful. Despite our need for power and wit, us proto-feminists still cleaved to the beauty myth.

These characters were also evil: stealing children, cooking them and skinning cute animals.  But us pre-pubescent radicals did not buy it.

We figured it was just bad PR and propaganda by the enemy. Men were spiking our heroines to make sure they were thoroughly unlikeable and not role-modelable.  The same way witches were castigated for being single childless women with property needing to be confiscated.

But those days are over. We can find role models of women-with-power wielding it responsibly all around us. We don’t need to turn to the evil ones for inspiration.   Or do we?

I was fearful about taking my 7 year old daughter to see the Lyceum’s new Snow Queen.  Not for her, but for womankind.

After all, if wee Zazou had chosen the Snow Queen, it would mean we had not progressed one iota.   Who are the role models for the noughtie girls of today?

Thankfully, reporting from the gender wars frontline, I can report to the troops that she chose …dugh dugh … dugh dugh … dugh dugh… (giving it an X Factor delay) … COBWEB SPIDER as her favourite character, yay.

Or does that mean more bad news?  Cobweb Spider works for the Snow Queen but when he (yes, he’s a bloke) doesn’t get sufficiently rewarded for his labours, decides to support the goodies.  On the one hand, a chancer, on the other, a turncoat and opportunist.

Go see the production and take a young girl, or even a boy, for that matter.  There is a full range of characters and role models to chose from. Pantomimes and children’s theatre are the best introduction to theatre.  Find out their favourite character then analyse at leisure.

A brilliant show full of lovely scenery and music, great acting, most of the panto conventions (he’s behind you, oh no she isn’t …), great humour and especially the lovely special effect of falling snow on the audience just before the break.  As a tribute, I’ve done the same for this blog.

The Snow Queen continues till 31 December. You can hear Zazou’s brief review on Leith Tonight radio show – the arts and culture centre of excellence in East Central Scotland here.

©Fin Wycherley

Other Related Articles

Four and Five stars from the media in Scotland

• Mary Brennan at The Herald here ““the welcome return of Stuart Paterson’s play, not seen on any Scottish stage for far too long”
• Mark Fisher at The Guardian ..picks up a breakneck pace as it hurtles towards the interval… a deep and urgent story”
• Thom Dibdin at the Evening News “hilarity, joy and downright naughtiness… a thrilling and magical production”
• Public Reviews’ “appeals to children and adults alike… Mark Thomson’s production sparkles along… Just right for Christmas”
• Ana Bradley at TV Bomb “boos and hisses, song and dance and an unshakable feeling of Christmassy magic… an entirely fun and enjoyable production”
• Lyndsay Corr at Edinburgh Review “an enchanting production full of surprises that’ll ensure the whole family will leave the auditorium with smile on their face”
• Ros Mackenzie at Lothian Life “This five star delightful production will warm the hearts of all… this is seasonal magic.”
• Helene Cloete at Edinburgh Theatre Review “The eleven actors all deliver energetic performances… The children clearly love it”

The Lyceum’s Stunning Romeo and Juliet

Kirsty Mackay as Juliet

I don’t do drugs, I do Art.

When spending my sweaty cash on the arts, be it music, theatre or visual, I need to get high, get off and get exhilarated by my art-spend, baby.

Ich bin ein Art-User, addicted to escaping that carping shrill voice that whinges and whines, on and on: ‘what are you going to do about him’, ‘why can’t they do it themselves’ and ‘what the hell are you doing with your life, ya big fat loser’.

Shakespeare is usually a bad trip.  All that convoluted language that everybody gets?  It could be written in Norn, to my ears.  Worse, if you admit you don’t get it, it’s like confessing to hating your greens and refusing to eat them as an adult.  People look at you funny.

Perfectly functional actors suddenly turn into private school headmasters with sonorous vowels and clipped elocution; enunciating the fine lines of the bard with unctuous ceremony.

It’s not the posh accents that are off-putting per se.  It’s the art-criminals who recite Shakespeare like bedtime prayers learned by rote.

Great actors are FEELINGs-merchants.  They hawk emotions to the highest bidder.  You can’t FEEL the words if they are being spoken by lizards.

And great directors are those that have the guts to cut and shape the ancient text of he-who-shakes-the-spear.  All those in-jokes of the time must have been terribly funny in their day but unless the audience is sitting with side-notes, they’re only laughing by numbers.

Thankfully, fellow emotions-junkies can get totally wasted on Romeo and Juliet at Edinburgh’s Lyceum.  The audience chuckled and  guffawed; tears were shed and FEELINGS were highly aroused.

Will Featherstone & Kirsty Mackay as Romeo & Juliet

There’s only two weeks left of the run but you absolutely MUST go see it if you want to ‘get’ Shakespeare.  It finishes on 16th October.

There are so many brilliant performances, from the camp to the fey, the sweety-wifey and the arch; it is truly the best Shakespeare EVER.  And totally accessible.

Tony Cownie, the director, has sliced the text and scenes with the surgical precision of a master-swordsman to reveal the beating heart of the greatest tragic love story ever told.

There are no convolutions.  It is gobbledee goop-free and totally yah-lite while still retaining the lyrical vigour and pure dope iambic pentameter of the spear-shaker.  This pared down epic of doomed youth is performed with a taut string grasped greedily by each and every actor in their prime.

The cast is a who’s who of great Scottish talent. There is Grant O’Rourke’s electrifying Mercutio, Steven McNicoll’s uber-camp Servant, Liam Brennan’s complex and torn Capulet, Alexandra Mathie’s loveable and well-meaning nurse and too many other great performances to mention.

Then there are the young stars: Will Featherstone’s Geordie Romeo is played breathlessly and utterly believably by the immensely talented 24yr old. The beautiful Juliet, played by an even younger and stunningly gifted Kirsty Mackay (only in 2^nd Year at RSAMD) transforms from a childish scootering 14yr old to the passionate woman prepared to die for love rather than live for convenience.

Philip Pinsky’s haunting music mirrors the playful and tragic moments on stage and Neil Murray’s stark yet lushly decadent black marbled set is to be used for next month’s play: Oscar Wilde’s ‘trivial comedy for serious people’, The Importance of Being Earnest starting 22^nd October.  Yet another example of spectacular green arts credentials since the cast are also to be Recycled and Reused, although perhaps not Reduced.

All praise to Mark Thomson, the Artistic Director of the Lyceum, who has unleashed yet another earthy, real and passionate piece of art for us Edinburgh mainliners.

Or should I say, Mark Thomson, my new arts crack-dealer for Autumn.

©Fin Wycherley

PS. Do let me know if you agree, I’d love to hear your views.

Related Articles

• Thom Dibdin in The Stage: Romeo and Juliet – “A big, thoughtful and entertaining production”
• Catherine Henderson in Informed Edinburgh: Romeo and Juliet at the Lyceum – “The Lyceum’s production is one not to be missed by the flock of resident Edinburgh culture-vultures, but also is one to prioritise for those of us who feed far too infrequently on the substantial delights that the theatre can bring”
• Michael Cox in Onstage Scotland: Romeo and Juliet – “It is constantly creative, and it also manages to surprise”
• Neil Cooper in The Herald: Romeo and Juliet – “With a pushy mother who only wants a Hello! magazine society wedding, this daddy’s girl’s rebellion is set from the off”
• Ros MacKenzie in Lothian Life: Romeo and Juliet Review – “Shakespeare might have been persuaded that after 300 years a fresh approach is always welcome”
• Helene Cloete in Edinburgh Theatre Review: Romeo and Juliet – “A well-staged, well-performed show”
• Keith D in Edinburgh Spotlight: Romeo and Juliet, Lyceum Theatre – “By pitching this dynamic and explosive production of Romeo and Juliet somewhere between a TV teen drama and an action movie, director Tony Cownie not only succeeds in making it appeal to Shakespeare first-timers, but also to those jaded by one too many pedestrian adaptations in the past.”
• Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman: Romeo and Juliet – “Every word of every speech glistens with life and understanding.”
• Val Baskott in Public Reviews: Romeo and Juliet – Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh – “A sparkling vibrant performance from Cownie and the Company, highly recommended”
• Malcolm McGonigle in The Skinny: Romeo and Juliet@TheLyceum “a great night out with William Shakespeare“
• Amy Taylor in The Journal: Romeo and Juliet “a welcome example of the Lyceum’s ongoing contributions to Scottish theatre”
• See an interview with Tony Cownie and the cast here
• Listen to my interview with Will Featherstone (Romeo) and Kirsty Mackay (Juliet) as broadcast on Leith Tonight, 12th September 2010.