The Snow Queen Play Analysis
For my play critique I went to Sunnyslope High School to see their production of The Snow Queen. All in all the theme of this play can be seen as love. Gerda expresses about every single scene how she loves Kai and will do anything to get him back. This play sounded extremely well put on, and then I saw it and wasn’t impressed even slightly.
To start off the play Grandma, Gerda, and Kai sit around the house until the kids decide they want to play outside in the snow. Grandma tells the kids about the snow Queen when they ask if the snowflakes have a ruler. The Snow queen appears to hear Kai say he will melt her in a boiling pot and throws shards of “the mirror” into his eye and his heart. The broken mirror shards have the power to cause
anything to seem and feel cold and ugly. Immediately the warm and funny Kai turns cold and runs away where he finds the Snow Queen who steals him away for years. Gertd never gives up hope that Kai is alive and travels through many difficulties to get him back. On the way she meets two crows, gets charmed by an enchantress, encounters palace guards, stays with the prince and princess, gets threatened with death, and makes friends with a reindeer. After so much time, Gerda reaches the Snow Queen’s palace were Kai is, she breaks the spell of the broken mirror shards with her love for him and defeats the Snow Queen. Living happily ever after like every fairytale that exists. I may have described this play to sound broadway worthy, however, the acting and technical elements of the show made me want to run out of the theater screaming.
In all sincerity I’m really not sure how to critique this play without completely ripping it apart. The acting was absolutely horrible, absolutely unbearable. There were three characters that made the play somewhat bearable: the crow named Crow and the two palace guards. The crow stayed with us for three-fourths of the play, was killed off for two minutes, and then resurrected. Crow came in halfway through the first act, which saved us all from an extremely painful death from boredom. The two palace guards came in about ten minutes before intermission and was in the first ten minutes of the second act. Both appearances from the guards had the audience cackling with laughter in their seats, which just made it easier to get through the rest of the play.
Although I wish the technical elements had been better than the acting, we can’t all get what we want. I can happily say there was nothing bad about lighting and that made me very happy. There were absolutely no problems that I had with lighting and the cyc in the background had nice colors to portray the scene. Even though the lighting wasn’t a complete disaster, the sound effects were. The sound effects did not fit in at all with what was happening in the moment. I feel as though they tried to make whatever sounds fit in, but not with their play, with a play that takes place in space. That’s right, all sound effects made me feel like I was watching the movie Gravity starring Sandra Bullock. The only sound effect that fit its sole purpose was the sharp ping of when the Snow Queen threw her mirror shards at people.
After seeing this production of The Snow Queen, I’ve learned three important things about acting. First off, I learned acting isn’t for everyone. Secondly, I learned people’s personalities depict the roles they play in that it seemed Crow is a funny person in real life, and he showed that through his character. The technical elements in this play taught me a lot. I learned that even if you are watching a Hans Christian Andersen play set to be in Lapland, you can also feel like you’re inside a Star Trek movie.
To start off the play Grandma, Gerda, and Kai sit around the house until the kids decide they want to play outside in the snow. Grandma tells the kids about the snow Queen when they ask if the snowflakes have a ruler. The Snow queen appears to hear Kai say he will melt her in a boiling pot and throws shards of “the mirror” into his eye and his heart. The broken mirror shards have the power to cause
anything to seem and feel cold and ugly. Immediately the warm and funny Kai turns cold and runs away where he finds the Snow Queen who steals him away for years. Gertd never gives up hope that Kai is alive and travels through many difficulties to get him back. On the way she meets two crows, gets charmed by an enchantress, encounters palace guards, stays with the prince and princess, gets threatened with death, and makes friends with a reindeer. After so much time, Gerda reaches the Snow Queen’s palace were Kai is, she breaks the spell of the broken mirror shards with her love for him and defeats the Snow Queen. Living happily ever after like every fairytale that exists. I may have described this play to sound broadway worthy, however, the acting and technical elements of the show made me want to run out of the theater screaming.
In all sincerity I’m really not sure how to critique this play without completely ripping it apart. The acting was absolutely horrible, absolutely unbearable. There were three characters that made the play somewhat bearable: the crow named Crow and the two palace guards. The crow stayed with us for three-fourths of the play, was killed off for two minutes, and then resurrected. Crow came in halfway through the first act, which saved us all from an extremely painful death from boredom. The two palace guards came in about ten minutes before intermission and was in the first ten minutes of the second act. Both appearances from the guards had the audience cackling with laughter in their seats, which just made it easier to get through the rest of the play.
Although I wish the technical elements had been better than the acting, we can’t all get what we want. I can happily say there was nothing bad about lighting and that made me very happy. There were absolutely no problems that I had with lighting and the cyc in the background had nice colors to portray the scene. Even though the lighting wasn’t a complete disaster, the sound effects were. The sound effects did not fit in at all with what was happening in the moment. I feel as though they tried to make whatever sounds fit in, but not with their play, with a play that takes place in space. That’s right, all sound effects made me feel like I was watching the movie Gravity starring Sandra Bullock. The only sound effect that fit its sole purpose was the sharp ping of when the Snow Queen threw her mirror shards at people.
After seeing this production of The Snow Queen, I’ve learned three important things about acting. First off, I learned acting isn’t for everyone. Secondly, I learned people’s personalities depict the roles they play in that it seemed Crow is a funny person in real life, and he showed that through his character. The technical elements in this play taught me a lot. I learned that even if you are watching a Hans Christian Andersen play set to be in Lapland, you can also feel like you’re inside a Star Trek movie.