Snow White at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness Review
Written by Kathryn for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Panto season is well and truly here, and Inverness’ Eden Court was full of excited faces ready to experience this year’s panto magic with the Imagine Theatre production of Snow White.
The story follows your traditional telling of Snow White, with the show opening on Queen Morgiana asking the magic mirror, “Who is the fairest of them all?” It’s Snow White - we learn, although I’m afraid I missed a good chunk of the dialogue in this opening scene due to being distracted by people coming in late. Luckily, a tale we are all familiar with, and I was able to get the gist of the scene.
We meet Snow White (Beth Robb Adams), her nanny and panto dame Moira McClunky (Steven Wren) and court jester Callum (Ross Allan). I thought these three all worked really well together on stage, Snow White’s calm presence bouncing nicely off the exuberant personalities and silliness brought by Dame Moira and Callum.
Nicola Auld’s Queen Morgiana was your typical panto villain, leaning in to the audience's boos and hisses, but I felt the character could have been played a bit more sinister. The cast also featured Ross Baxter as Prince Lorenzo, and Georgia Elanor Fish as Spirit of the Mirror.
There’s lots of local jokes and references to keep the highland crowd happy and a good balance of appropriate humour for both adults and kids alike - there obviously HAD to be a 6 7 joke in there somewhere!
It was great to see both an adult and junior ensemble featured in Snow White, especially once I read in the programme that many members of the adult ensemble had previously been part of the junior ensemble. This just gave a really nice feel to the production, and I liked that the adults enjoy coming back and passing on what they’ve learned to the new generation. The junior cast were outstanding, especially those playing the Seven Lost Bairns, who dealt with some slight mic issues like true professionals.
Snow White includes several pop classics throughout, and although performed well by the cast, I just wasn’t sure if they were the right song choices. Most of them missed the mark for me apart from Skerryvore’s “Take My Hand” - this felt really appropriate with its existing Scottish flair enhanced by some traditional highland choreography. It was also great to see the live band featured on stage at the beginning and end of the show.
Unfortunately, I did feel the pace dragged a little in act one, but act two had some incredible comedic moments, including a fantastic rendition of “Twelve Days of Christmas”, that picked everything back up and redeemed the show for me. Although lengthy, this particular number felt like it gave the show that much-needed bit of life.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for a night of festive family fun in Inverness this December, then Snow White will hit the spot. It’s full of traditional panto humour with a nice local touch that will ensure kids and adults alike are leaving with a smile on their face.
During the traditional panto shout outs, we learned that people from all over the Scottish Highlands were in the audience, some travelling more than 100 miles to attend. If that doesn’t show how popular Eden Court’s panto offering is then I don’t know what does.
At Eden Court Theatre until 4 January
★ ★ ★
