Archive News
Sky’s the limit for Fidget Feet in heart-stopping ‘The Snow Queen’
Date Published: {J}
One of the most beautiful of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales, The Snow Queen, is being brought to life in a fresh and highly visual production that will visit the Black Box Theatre next week.
This production by Fidget Feet Ariel Dance Theatre Company is a show full of aerial acrobatics, fantastic ski dance scenes, a brilliant set, great music and wonderful costumes, says Chantal McCormack of Fidget Feet. It contains moments that will make the audience laugh out loud and times that will leave people with their hearts in their mouths.
The stage show has been adapted from the original fairytale, explains Chantal, the cofounder and co-artistic director of Fidget Feet with Jym Daly.
In their version, The Snow Queen of the title is in charge of the Blizzard Circus which has travelled the world and is full of fascinating characters, including circus freaks. As the queen grows older and her beauty fades, she invents a dark mirror that will hypnotise the audience into believing that she is still beautiful.
When the circus freaks accidentally break the mirror, shattering it into a thousand pieces, the Snow Queen sends for a young boy, Kay – played by Stephen O’Rourke – to fix it and to become her slave.
When a piece of the mirror pierces his eye, his vision becomes distorted and instead of seeing good and beauty, he sees only ugliness and darkness. Gerda, his little sister, played by Chantal, sets out to save him from the queen’s icy cold and loveless kingdom before his heart is frozen forever.
In the decade since Fidget Feet was established by Chantal, a choreographer, and Jym, a musician, the company has combined aerial skills with contemporary circus to create a theatre where athleticism, aerial dance, music and video art are all vital components.
This latest show brings together local and international talents using aerial work, dance, music, theatre and special effects with comedy, songs and dialogue, says Chantal.
It features original music by Jym, with costumes and set design by Paul Shriek who has worked in fashion and theatre for almost 30 years. Gavin Marshal (ex the Royal Shakespeare Company) is the director, and co-wrote show with Fidget Feet following a series of workshops in Donegal in 2009.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.