The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen opens with Hans Christian Andersen telling a group of children about a goblin’s fearsome invention: a mirror which reveals everyone’s ugliness. When the goblins attempt to bear it to heaven to show the angels their hideous reflections, it shatters into billions of bits which fly around the world. The original fairy tale tells of one such bit falling into Kai’s eye, making him bitter and angry. He is soon swept away by the Snow Queen. His childhood friend, Gerda, must journey to the North Pole to rescue him from the Ice Palace.
This Snow Queen is set in modern United States and the fantasy world of Andersen’s tale. Kai, after his use of LSD, is transported by the Snow Queen to a land between life and death. Gerda sets out on a perilous journey to rescue him. While she follows the path of Andersen’s child-hero, and the characters she meets are fantastic, they are not the stuff of fairy tales.
Gerda’s final confrontation with the Snow Queen reveals childhood relationships and tragedy, and results in the rescue of Kai and the redemption of many, including Gerda and the Snow Queen, herself.
While obviously there are many characters in this play, I have carefully structured it so it can be played by five actors, with masks, costumes, and/or different voices.