★★★★

“a glowing winter treat for the very young and for anyone still young at heart”

What if the joyful heart of winter turned cold and bleak? In The Snow Queen: A Woodland Adventure, a charming new family production from Icon Theatre and the Albany, Hans Christian Andersen’s winter tale is reimagined as an intimate, interactive woodland quest. Directed and written by Nancy Hirst, the show follows the mice Gerda‘s adventure through a frost-bound forest to break the Snow Queen’s spell—a journey that becomes as much about collective warmth as it is about seasonal magic.

The production’s welcoming, immersive atmosphere begins the moment families enter performers greet children in character, colourful seating draws them forward, and the pre-show becomes part of the world. Participation flows naturally from there—children help find missing socks, play musical statues, vote in a ceremonious “best cheese” contest, and later join hands (or elbows) to steady the “magic boat” crossing an icy river. Each moment reinforces the story’s themes of cooperation and shared courage.

Eve Pereira’s Gerda is the emotional anchor of the piece—sweet, earnest, and instantly inviting. She is warmly supported by Freya Stephenson as the caring Mother Mouse and Henry Regan as the spirited Kai. The ensemble handles multiple roles with ease, though it is the chemistry between Pereira and the young audience that truly fuels the narrative.

Visually, the show is delicately enchanting. Laura McEwen’s set and costumes evoke Bluebell Wood with crisp simplicity, gradually overtaken by the Snow Queen’s chill. Callum Macdonald’s lighting deepens this transformation, shifting from warm woodland glow to glittering frost with a sense of genuine magic. These transitions capture the emotional stakes of the story—the tug between warmth and cold, belonging and isolation.

Eamonn O’Dwyer’s music provides the production’s beating heart. The melodies are simple, memorable and accessible to young voices. When the audience joins the cast in singing “Shine, Star, Shine,” lighting a star overhead through collective song, the effect is quietly moving and beautifully pitched to families.

While not all elements land with the same gentleness. A few sharper words used in moments of conflict (“mean,” “loser”) feel slightly misaligned with the show’s otherwise tender tone and its intended age bracket, sadly pulling some parents out of the spell. Similarly, the Snow Queen’s monologue leans toward the didactic where physical storytelling might better captivate young viewers. A tighter, more physically expressive opening could also help audiences settle into the world more swiftly.

Even so, The Snow Queen: A Woodland Adventure succeeds as a visually engaging and musically uplifting piece of participatory theatre. Its greatest strength lies in recognising that children respond most deeply when invited to co-create the magic rather than merely watch it. The finale—snow drifting down as cast and audience unite in song—beautifully encapsulates this spirit. With its empathetic performances, thoughtful interactivity and a warm celebration of friendship, it is a glowing winter treat for the very young and for anyone still young at heart.

MOUNTAINS AND SEAS – SONG OF TODAY

Omnibus Theatre

★★★

“visually striking, often intellectually stimulating, and performed with deep commitment”

How do we stage myth in the present? And do the songs of today still carry weight? In Mountains and Seas – Song of Today, a collectively devised work by Xie Rong, Daniel York Loh and Beibei Wang, ambition is never in short supply. Commissioned and co-produced with Kakilang, the show draws inspiration from the ancient Chinese classic Mountains and Seas to confront a sweeping range of contemporary anxieties: climate collapse, digital surveillance, rising global fascism and existential dread.

The show begins on a note of quiet, arresting clarity. Jennifer Lim stands centre stage and delivers Daniel York Loh’s poetic opening with calm authority: “There is no civilisation,” she tells us, “Only mountains and seas.” In these opening moments, the piece feels anchored and evocative, promising a meditation on deep time and fragility. Lim remains the production’s emotional anchor throughout, even as the work fractures into more unstable and volatile territory. Her narrator is subtly shaped through Fan Jiayi and Tash Tung’s physical movement, and through moments of dialogue and exchange with Xie Rong, giving the role a layered theatrical life beyond spoken text alone.

That calm is soon ruptured by an unexpected burst of Beijing Opera–style singing. From here, the production refuses to settle into any single form. It becomes a restless hybrid — part ritual, part political address, part physical theatre, part live concert — with music surging through multiple styles, from folk to rock to instrumental soundscape.

At its strongest, the piece achieves moments of genuine visual power. Yiran Duan (Yi Craft Studio)’s costume and jewellery design is exquisite: metallic, reflective and ceremonial, situating the performers in a world that feels ancient yet futuristic. Danni Zheng and Ao Lei’s lighting design creates some of the evening’s most memorable images — performers standing framed within triangular beams of light, laser-like reflections flashing from costume surfaces, and, near the end, cloud motifs drifting across the stage with quiet magic.

Daniel York Loh’s script is densely poetic and fiercely intelligent, but the sheer number of crises it attempts to contain — ecological collapse, political extremism, technological anxiety — creates a sense of conceptual congestion. The performance shifts rapidly between spoken word, operatic outburst, live music, abstract movement and visual installation. Without firmer stage direction or clearer rhythmic control, these elements begin to compete rather than deepen one another. By the end, the overriding impression is of a group of highly skilled artists attempting to hold more than the form can comfortably sustain. The reference to Mountains and Seas remains an evocative motif rather than a true structural or philosophical engine — a poetic backdrop rather than the production’s organising spine. The question that lingers is not whether these themes matter — they undoubtedly do — but whether the work has yet found a coherent theatrical language capable of holding them together.

Mountains and Seas – Song of Today is visually striking, often intellectually stimulating, and performed with deep commitment. Its seriousness of purpose is undeniable, and many of its individual images linger in the mind. Yet as the audience moves through waves of climate panic, political dread and existential anxiety, the journey often feels closer to a constellation of urgent fragments than a fully unified theatrical arc. Perhaps what the work most needs is not more ideas, but one clear line to carry us through the storm. As the performance itself suggests: “Mountains and seas are endless.” So too are our fears, hopes and imagination — but only when shaped with clarity can they truly transform. With sharper dramaturgical focus and greater trust in the physical language of performance, this work may yet achieve the mythic force it seeks. For now, it stands as a provocative contemporary myth in draft form — intriguing, ambitious, and still searching for its final shape.

Tag Archives: Portia Yuran Li

THE SNOW QUEEN: A WOODLAND ADVENTURE

★★★★

The Albany

THE SNOW QUEEN: A WOODLAND ADVENTURE

The Albany

★★★★

“a glowing winter treat for the very young and for anyone still young at heart”

THE SNOW QUEEN: A WOODLAND ADVENTURE

The Albany

Reviewed on 6th December 2025

by Portia Yuran Li

Photography by Roswitha Chesher

THE SNOW QUEEN

THE SNOW QUEEN

THE SNOW QUEEN

MOUNTAINS AND SEAS – SONG OF TODAY

★★★

Omnibus Theatre

MOUNTAINS AND SEAS – SONG OF TODAY

Omnibus Theatre

★★★

“visually striking, often intellectually stimulating, and performed with deep commitment”