I really do seem to have crossed to the dark side this past couple of weeks. After Peter Grimes and A Midsummer Night’s Dream I find myself watching a ballet about Snow White. This is not the Disneyfied version with singing dwarves, however, but the original fairy tale, collected, appropriately,by the Brothers Grimm, and retold by Carol Ann Duffy.
The story has been modified in several ways, all of which give it a more sinister feel. It begins in the same manner with a queen sewing by the window whilst the snow falls outside. She pricks her finger on the needle and three drops of blood fall onto the precipitation on the black window cill. This causes her to wish that she had a daughter with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair the colour of ebony. Lo and behold, shortly thereafter she finds out she is pregnant and the issue conforms with all her requirements. This is where it gets really dark; in the fairy tale, the Queen dies and the King remarries, but here it is he who shuffles off this mortal coil and the she who brings up Snow White, as she has been named, as a single parent. The Queen has a bit of a narcissus complex and believes herself to be the most beautiful woman in the world, or at least the palace, and, being in possession of a magic mirror, which is unable to tell lies, she asks of it each morning as to who is the fairest in the realm. I tried that with the bathroom mirror yesterday morning to see if it worked but the reflection still hasn’t stopped laughing! Years go by and one day the mirror confides that it is Snow White who has taken over the title of Miss Palace. To make matters worse, the Queen has asked her huntsman, who looks after the palace and a band of miners who provide it with supplies, to take a portrait of her to the King in the neighbouring castle, as a kind of early Tinder come on. As with users of the current version, she sends a likeness from several years before. This causes the King to swipe right and he shows up at a dance the Queen has organised. As you will probably have guessed, the King sees Snow White, who looks remarkably like the painting, and wants to spend the evening dancing with her.
The King, Geoff Hopson and Queen, Caroline Reece
The Queen develops a feeling of resentment against her daughter, who, sensing danger, has run away into the forest. and orders the huntsman to kill her, bringing back her heart as proof of the deed. Snow White has come across the house where the miners live and, after an initial burst of violence towards her, she is rescued by the huntsman who persuades them to give her shelter in return for her helping with the chores. Being unable to bring himself to carry out the order of the Queen, he picks on an innocent girl who happens to be outside the lodgings and takes her heart instead. The Queen thanks him and proceeds to eat it. I told you it was dark.
Snow White, Virginia Scudeletti, sharing the rather primitive ablution facilities with the miners.
Now that her main competition has been eradicated, the Queen asks the mirror the usual question but it replies that the fairest in the realm is still Snow White, who is well and living in the woods. Drawing the conclusion that you just can’t get the staff nowadays, the Queen disguises herself in order to do the dirty deed herself. After an abortive attempt to polish her daughter off by strangulation using a red silk sash is thwarted when the miners return before the job is complete, she returns the following day with a poisoned apple from which Snow White takes a bite and collapses in a dead faint.
Snow White, Virginia Scudeletti, wondering whether it might have been better to only have had four-a-day.
This is where the story goes off on at a tangent with the huntsman kissing, the seemingly lifeless body – weird – and dislodging the piece of apple from her throat, causing her to revive. The pair get married, much to the chagrin of the Queen, who is still single and whose dating app subscription has obviously lapsed. They all, however, live happily ever after, although I should imagine only with the help of intensive therapy.
Obviously the main object of the exercise is to provide music and narrative on which a ballet can be based, and, as such, it worked brilliantly well. It was danced in a modern style, with some classical steps but also a lot of gymnastic moves, as well as conventional ones. The Director was Liv Lorent MBE and the Scenario Writer, Carol Ann Duffy DBE. The music was composed by Murray Gold and the piece wittily narrated by Sarah Parish.
The happy couple, Snow White, Virginia Scudeletti and huntsman Gavin Coward tie the knot watched over by the Queen, Caroline Reece and surrounded by the miners and local children.
Snow White was danced by Virginia Scudeletti and the Queen by Caroline Reece. Both were superb as were the miners and Gavin Coward as the Huntsman. There was really nice touch with the addition of local children who were given chances to join in the action, especially at the wedding finale. The show is on tour and groups of local kids have been recruited at each venue. Their brief seemed to be to mirror what the adults did, some executed this better than others, but it did bring a much needed lighter touch to send us home on a bit of a high.
I must also mention the Set Designer, Phil Eddolls, whose creation of a central structure being able to rotate 360 degrees meant it acted as both the palace and the woods. In its former state, it had several drawers and methods to allow characters to transform without going off stage, and in its latter version it became a scary house covered in greenery.
As previously mentioned, Snow White is on tour and has now moved on from Leeds Playhouse, but it is calling at Dundee Rep on 27th and 28th February, Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkaldy on 13th and 14th March ending up at Tramway, Glasgow on 20th and 21st March.
I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the piece but although billed as family friendly, a writing colleague I spoke to after the show who had taken her two children with her, one of whom did have a few frightening episodes but was quick to tell me that she wasn’t that scared!
To find out more about balletLORENT please go to https://www.balletlorent.com/
To see what else is coming to Leeds Playhouse it is https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on/
Photographs by The Twins
Tyke It To The Limit 