KIDS | Previews
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98 THE LIST 5 Nov 2015–4 Feb 2016 98 THE LIST 5 Nov 2015–4 Feb 2016
DANCE SCOTTISH BALLET’S WEE CINDERELLA Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 22 Dec; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 15 Jan
The running time may have been cut down to size, but everything else about Scottish Ballet’s Wee Cinderella is as big as it comes. Following on the success of last year’s Wee Hansel & Gretel, this year’s show will be an hour-long potted version of the company’s main production, with all the bells and whistles. ‘The audience isn’t getting half measures,’ assures Scottish Ballet’s artistic director, Christopher
Hampson. ‘They get the full company with the full orchestra, because it’s really important to us that people get that experience.’
Hampson has taken the well-loved tale and given it a natural makeover, so now Cinderella’s
transformation is brought about by moths, grasshoppers and spiders who spin and weave her dress and shoes. Despite being an hour shorter than the full-length production, Wee Cinderella will still have a
recognisable storyline.
‘It’s a condensed version of the main performance,’ explains Hampson. ‘So audiences still get the arc of the story.’ (Kelly Apter)
THEATRE SNOW PALS Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 28 Nov–Sat 31 Dec
Lisa Keenan was sitting with her little boy at a storytelling session when the idea came to her. Each week, she noticed, parents and guardians attending the Tron’s Tall Tales would encourage their young charges to ‘share’ and ‘take turns’ – just as she did with her own son. As creator of the Tron’s Christmas show for younger audiences, Keenan realised that the making and breaking of friendships is a subject many will recognise.
‘I was interested in the rules children set up when they play,’ she explains. ‘And it’s all about
following those rules – because when you don’t, they can go from best friends to absolute mayhem . And then, a few seconds later, they’re friends again.’ Keenan also wanted to avoid ‘sending a message that Christmas is all about presents’, so
Snow Pals is billed as a ‘warming winter tale’ for 3 to 6-year-olds. Surrounded by white wool and wooden twigs, two friends learn the benefits of caring and sharing.
‘The friends live in a magical world,’ says Keenan. ‘But when they fall out, that world gets distorted and the snow stops falling. There’s no big answer – they don’t have to find a solution – it’s just about them being friends and saying sorry.’ (Kelly Apter)
DANCE BALLETLORENT’S SNOW WHITE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 22 & Sat 23 Jan
Stepmothers get a terrible press in fairytales, always conspiring to bring about misery to their new partner’s offspring. As if somehow, the absence of shared DNA makes the behaviour more palatable to readers. Yet when the Brothers Grimm first penned Snow White, it was the girl’s birth mother who sought to destroy her beautiful young rival. A fact quickly updated when the second version was published. Two hundred years later, choreographer Liv Lorent is daring to return to that original scenario in her new production for family audiences.
‘I think it’s very telling that in the original, it was the real mother,’ she says. ‘And that the Brothers Grimm censored it to make it less traumatic. But that, for me, is what makes it a fascinating story. Many mothers and daughters have those terrible feelings of competition.’ The second in a trilogy of fairytale adaptations
(following 2012’s Rapunzel), Snow White will benefit from the balletLORENT creative dream team. Dr Who composer Murray Gold created the soundtrack, former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote the scenario, and Libby Everall designed the costumes, fresh from working on Game of Thrones. So while it was important for Lorent to ensure the show had shades of light and dark, the team working alongside her did their bit. ‘I’m not shying away from darkness, because I know a lot of adults and children enjoy that,’ she says. ‘But because I work in a collaborative way, it’s a densely layered production. So you’re watching dance but also hearing words, witnessing amazing lighting design, seeing beautiful costumes and hearing extraordinary music. The darkness of the content is tempered by the beauty of the image, or by the cinematic music.’ (Kelly Apter)