PREVIEW
What: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Where: McPherson Playhouse
When: 7 p.m., Dec. 27, 28 and 29
Tickets: $25 and $45 (250-386-6121 or rmts.bc.ca)
Reinventing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a British-style pantomime might not sound particularly difficult.
Rehearsals for the new Kaleidoscope Theatre adaptation are going well. That said, the path has had a few turns and twists.
So says Stephen Andrew. He’s the director and adapter of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, poised to play the McPherson Playhouse next week.
Andrew said the dwarf part of the equation is potentially tricky. In the U.K., a controversy emerged recently when dwarf actors complained about being excluded from a pantomime version of Snow White. These performers — including noted actor Warwick Davis — charged producers with using regular-sized actors (who performed on their knees) at a cheaper rate.
There’s no such squabble in Kaleidoscope’s new production, which has enlisted mostly children as the seven dwarfs. However, Andrew notes they were unable to use dwarf names from the 1937 movie — such as Doc, Bashful and Grumpy — because they’re copyrighted by the Walt Disney Company.
In Kaleidoscope’s version, the dwarfs are deliberately unnamed.
“I have fun with that [issue] in the show,” said Andrew, who aside from being a director is a former broadcast journalist who made an unsuccessful run for mayor of Victoria in 2014.
He said the biggest challenge with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the music. This production uses both original tunes and existing pop hits. It has not been easy getting permission for the latter. Interviewed early this week, Andrew was still negotiating the rights for some chart-toppers. That said, audiences can expect such confirmed ditties as Dolly Parton’s Nine to Five and Consider Yourself from the musical Oliver!
The inclusion of popular songs is typical for the modern pantomime.
“If you went to a panto now, you’d likely see a Bruno Mars song or a Taylor Swift song,” Andrew said.
Kaleidoscope’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will include jokes for adults, as well as children. Expect light-hearted local references.
“We do make fun of things in town, maybe some news stories that have occurred. It’s all in good fun — there’s nothing mean in it,” Andrew said.
The pantomime is a traditional English entertainment with 19th-century origins. These musical comedies — often based on fables such as Puss in Boots and Jack and the Beanstalk — feature jokes, dancing, singing. In this theatrical genre, there is often a “pantomime dame,” that is, a female character played by a man in drag. In Kaleidoscope’s production, the dame is a pink-wigged Scott Clarke playing Nurse Tickle.
Modern pantos often showcase a celebrity or two. This Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs includes television meteorologist Astrid Braunschmidt as the Good Fairy and a videotaped appearance by TV weatherman Ed Bain as the Magic Mirror.
The star of the show is Cati Landry, a young actor who has performed for the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival, Langham Court Theatre and Four Seasons Musical Theatre. Landry said she has juggled rehearsals for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with studies as a second-year English major at the University of Victoria.
“It’s difficult at times when we’re in heavy rehearsal and then there’s exam period. But you make it work. And theatre becomes the release from all that,” said Landry, who sometimes studied in the wings.
“When I get really stressed out, I’ll go to rehearsal for two hours and it’s almost like I’ve meditated or something. When I’m Snow White I have to smile all the time and be happy.”
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs marks the return of pantomime to the McPherson Playhouse after a few decades. Before that, touring productions regularly played Victoria.
Andrew recalls discussing the lack of pantos at the McPherson with the theatre’s crew years ago.
“I said: ‘Yeah, we should try to do something about that.’ Now here we are, 20-odd years later,” he said.