cold woman, cool show

Music, dance, and theatre can be a tricky combination to pull off.

More often than not, one elements gets ignored, or used with either too heavy a hand, or too sparingly. Allowing elements to gel naturally, without force, requires a deft hand and a passion for the subject matter under which the elements come together.

Enter Alon Nashman. The head of Toronto theatre company Theaturtle, whose production of The Snow Queen is now in at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District.

Based on the children’s story by Hans Christian Anderson, the piece uses the classic theme of the hero's journey by tracing the experiences of a little girl in her quest to find her best friend.

Come on, you know the hero’s journey. Joseph Campbell? Elements of myth?

For those who aren’t quite up on their Campbell, here’s the Coles-notes-version: there is a call to adventure, a series of trials, an achievement of the goal, then a return to the ordinary world. All of this is often accompanied by supernatural elements that both help and hinder the hero.

The hero’s journey is often deeply affecting on many levels, since many of greatest stories ever told –classical, biblical and otherwise –contain at their core its themes and structures. Human existence is, of course, the hero’s journey in action, an nearly every fairytale uses its structural outline as the basis of the tale.

And so it is in Anderson’s tale of Gerda, his hero, who is called to adventure in order to rescue Kay, who has been taken by the entirely mystical, cold Snow Queen of the title. Along the path to rescue him, she encounters a variety of supernatural creatures and scary characters, all of whom are brought to life -with great passion and virtuosity - by Nashman himself, with music, dance, and visual elements as counterpoints to the story of wintery fury and magic.

The stage of the Michael Young theatre is draped in white, and at first you'd be tempted to think it was the work of Karim Rashid, or some new-fangled designer furniture sale, but think again. Instead of literal props and spoon-fed gimmickry, Theaturtle trust their audience enough to use their imaginations, offering only subtle visual clues (by way of a projection of images -some literal, some abstract) to move the story along.

In tandem with the wonderful work of the Tokai String Quartet and the flowing, open choreography by Claudia Moore and sensually performed by dancer Kate Alton, The Snow Queen weaves a powerful, magical spell. Nashman literally takes on every character in the far-ranging and sometimes meandering tale, vanishing into the roles, the story, and the winter wonderland that's created in the marriages between sound, movement, music and words.

If you're seeking something off the sugary-sweet Christmas entertainment path, look no further then the Young Centre. You'll be taken on a journey that is both spellbinding and strangely familiar. And you’ll never look at frosted windows the same way again.

The Snow Queen runs at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts until December 16th.
Check the Young Centre website for various times.
http://www.youngcentre.ca