Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Theater Review: The Snow Queen

By Alexandra Bonifield of North Dallas Gazette

The Snow Queen, a good vs. evil fairy tale penned by Hans Christian Andersen in 1845, brimmed over with long-lasting, vivid stage and screen-worthy imagery. Adapted as an animated film in the Soviet Union, it crossed the Pacific and was dubbed into English for a 1959 Art Linkletter TV special featuring Sandra Dee. It became a ballet, an operetta, an HBO series with Eartha Kitt, and in 2006 a modern Korean love story. I remember being terrified by a Dallas Theater Center production I attended in grade school. My high expectations of its newest incarnation at Undermain Theatre were well met.

Loosely based on the Andersen tale, the Lynne Alvarez version of The Snow Queen feels haunted by the spirit of Clarissa Pinkola-Estes’ Women Who Run with the Wolves. This version focuses on the psychological ramifications of its heroine’s journey, trials encountered, life lessons learned. The seductress Snow Queen, icily brought to life with sultry menace and melodious singing voice by Shannon-Kearns Simmons, ensnares the affections of a handsome youth named Christian and lures him to her Nordic castle on a remote seashore, where she dallies with him for a year while planning to kill him. Meanwhile, Christian’s childhood best friend (Analiese) follows, enduring searing emotional and physical trials in her attempt to find and save him. The versatile Anastasia Munoz creates the heroine’s role with a realistic sensitive vitality yet well suited to fantasy. Her transition from effervescent innocent ingénue to seasoned, decisive wiser woman is one of the strongest elements in this slightly confusing adaptation. The handsome youth, portrayed by the classical, princely “heartthrob” Christian Taylor, is a callous, selfish lad. He abandons Analiese at a moment’s notice and seems more nostalgic than truly in love when he learns of her arduous journey to the Snow Queen’s castle. It isn’t clear at the end if the young lovers reunite, if he dies by driving a sleigh off a cliff, or if Analiese goes back home alone, having grown beyond her naive infatuation with Christian’s fickle superficiality.

The Snow Queen

Undermain Theatre is known for presenting challenging, soul-searching stage works. How nationally celebrated playwright, translator and poet Lynne Alvarez came to write this play for Undermain has an intriguing history. According to Lawson Taitte’s Dallas News interview with the playwright, ”Ms. Alvarez goes way back with some of the downtown New York playwrights like Mac Wellman and Jeffrey M. Jones, with whom Undermain has had long relationships. In fact, Undermain was producing these avant-garde leaders when few other companies in the country would touch them. The quality of the Dallas troupe's work developed a reputation in the national theatrical underground, and Ms. Alvarez had heard her friends talk it up…Mr. Wellman was the one who put the playwright in touch with Undermain Artistic Director Katherine Owens.”

Ms. Owens directed the production premiere with style, integrating well-synthesized modern and classical elements. She creates an entrancingly eerie fantasy world through effective character development and superior production elements. Performers (actors and puppeteers) support the director’s carefully-constructed vision while defining their roles in broad strokes. Rhonda Boutte’s Sigrun is the most complex, magical character in the work, reminiscent of Pinkola-Estes archetypes. Bold, kinesthetic savagery emanates from her performance, swashbuckling strut to flashing teeth. Is Sigrun friend or foe? Is she real, or imbedded in Annaliese’s mind and heart, an alter ego? It’s refreshing to see a female stage character exhibiting such relentless inner strength as well as kicking the action into high gear. No fear, no apology, no deprecating fuss about “how she looks.” What an engaging, meaty role for a talented, fearless actress!

This Snow Queen’s design team is to die for. The minimalist set, designed by professional artist Linda Noland, consists primarily of a series of easily shifted, delicately cut out flats, backlit in warm tones. Birds fill the stage in flocks of hand-carried puppets and giant origami, enlivening and interweaving the natural environment and the heroine’s dreamy obsession as though they are all part of one contiguous dreamscape. It’s exquisite, subtly erotic. Sound design by Bruce DuBose and musical composition by Floyd Kearns-Simmons transport the entire production to yet another level. The score, incorporating actual bird song and calls with guitar, drums and keyboard accompaniment, is melodic, inspired, mesmerizing. Without the comprehensive scoring, the play would have been good but not quite so polished and imaginatively effective. Undermain’s promotion describes this play as “a fairy tale for strange adults”. I’d call it “a whimsical tale for passionate voyagers.”

Dress warmly, gird your soul and climb aboard. The Snow Queen awaits. Purchase tickets online or by calling 214-747-5515.

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