Loss of innocence has been explored by writers from John Milton to Kurt Vonnegut, who famously wrote, “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. So it goes.”
But innocence need not be gone forever — at least, according to “The Snow Queen,” a folk musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairytale.
Written by singer-songwriter Michael Peter Smith and directed by Evan Silver ’16, the warmth of the play triumphs over its wintery setting as paradise lost becomes paradise regained.
The production opens portraying the inseparable friends Gerda and Kai as they romp through the rosy realms of their childhood, before the fleeting Danish summertime yields to the encroaching change of winter. Despite his grandmother’s warning of the bewitching powers of the Snow Queen, whose mirror of ice reflects the evil and conceals the good of the world, Kai falls victim to her cold beauty. With one shard of the mirror’s glass in his eye and another in his heart, Kai leaves his best friend behind and flies away with the Snow Queen to her Nordic castle.
Resolving to find her companion, Gerda embarks on a rescue mission into the Arctic Circle. Though her quest is fraught with danger and uncertainty, she is aided by the colorful characters she encounters along the way. From vagabonds to royalty to various members of the animal kingdom, these personalities are moved by her plight.
The play feels like the illustrations of a picture book brought to life, largely due to much of the narrative arc unfolding through the omnipresent Storyteller, played by Annie Kocher ’14. Kocher’s angelic soprano gently urges the action along with sweetly sung maternal guidance that transports the audience back to a simpler time.
But because the play is primarily driven by character rather than plot, the dramatic tension between good and evil can be underwhelming and somewhat sugarcoated. Ursula Raasted’s ’14 icy rendition of the Snow Queen is well-done but all too brief, especially considering she plays the title character. Without a reprise of her performance, the play’s amplified good and minimized evil presents an interesting reversal of the image found in the Snow Queen’s mirror but is not entirely true to life.
Becca Millstein ’16 nails her performance as Gerda, endearing herself to the audience from the moment she first bounds onstage in a bright burst of energy. Her voice conveys the buoyancy and resilience of youth — not only can she carry a tune even when hauled up and lurched around on a chair, but she also makes doing so look effortless. In her moments portraying the doubt and despair that creep into Gerda’s determined front, Millstein is at her most powerful, her voice velvety and undulating with the consistent vibrato of raw talent.
Simon Henriques ’15 brings a unique comedic flair to each of his multiple roles — the most memorable of which include a member of an impish Wooden Soldier duo and a Lapp Woman with an affinity for fish that borders on fetishism — with each performance more shamelessly absurd than the last.
Despite the limited production space, Silver makes the most of the trio of friendly ravens accompanying Gerda through the first legs of her journey. They serve as helpful human props, representing Gerda’s physical transportation by embodying the dynamism of a river or galloping horse.
The live band accompaniment, directed by Marty Strauss ’16, propels the timeworn fairytale to a relatable, contemporary context. The powerful expression of violinist Ryan Segur ’17 evokes an acoustic nostalgia in contrast to the primarily electric ensemble, creating a bridge with the past and grounding the story in its traditional origins.
Ultimately, “The Snow Queen” allows the audience to re-enter the realm of once upon a time, where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts — except for the biting Arctic wind, of course.
The show opens tonight in the Downspace of the Production Workshop at 8 p.m. It will also run Saturday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. and Sunday through Tuesday at 8 p.m. Admission is free.
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