Storyhouse’s most spectacular Christmas show ever, The Snow Queen will take audiences by storm this December. Come behind the scenes and meet the team dedicated to taking this beloved fairytale from page to stage… 

Christmas comes but once a year – so making magical memories which will be cherished by our young audiences and their adults is especially important. 

The festive season is all about being transported into another world, whether that’s via a journey along the Yellow Brick Road or a trip to Neverland (second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning) with Peter and Wendy.

“Storyhouse is committed to giving Chester families and theatre lovers maximum magic for their money” 

And for 2022, Storyhouse audiences can expect the most ambitious – and by far the most spectacular – seasonal show to date. 

In these challenging times, Storyhouse is committed to giving Chester families and theatre lovers maximum magic for their money with a lavish new production of Hans Christian Andersen’s much-loved dark fairytale The Snow Queen. 

Months of careful preparation takes place behind the scenes to create the perfect production. 

The Snow Queen, an epic battle of good versus evil told here in an enchanting adaptation by Charles Way, was chosen in February and work has continued since then to bring it to the stage. 

Creating a spellbinding show takes not just a talented cast but also a huge collaborative effort from a creative team which encompasses set and costume design, lighting, sound, music, special effects, fight and movement direction. 

Director Hannah Noone, who has a background in opera and whose other credits include Home, I’m Darling for the National Theatre, came on board in March to help shape the vision for the production. 

Meanwhile Jacob Hughes, whose work includes Romeo and Juliet for Shakespeare’s Globe and Pavilion at Theatr Clwyd, has been developing the design since the start of the summer. 

His brief is to create a breathtakingly beautiful, imaginative – and immersive – winter wonderland but one which also has a hint of Into the Woods and the darkness of Grimms’ Fairy Tales about it and which will transport not only characters like Gerda and Kai, but the audience as well. 

And Storyhouse’s intimate thrust stage is being reconfigured specially to create a deeper and wider space for the set. 

Inspiration for what will be a striking collection of costumes comes from a host of different eras and cultural references from 1940s housewives to Quentin Tarantino films, while the Snow Queen herself will appear in the kind of dramatic outfits which would make Lady Gaga green with envy. 

Music is also always an integral part of every Christmas show. 

For this Storyhouse Originals production, composer Sam Barnes is creating a soundtrack of atmospheric original songs and music, some of it inspired by Danish folk/rock, which will be played live on stage by a five-strong band of musicians who will be dressed as spectacularly as the cast.

Storyhouse producer Helen Redcliffe says: “I’m so excited about Christmas. 

This year we’re going full out with a beautiful story. We home a library so we can’t do anything but tell stories; that’s really important to us. But we’re upping the spectacle and the magic. 

“This is about whisking our audiences off to somewhere completely different for a couple of hours.” 

The Snow Queen is at Storyhouse from Friday 9 December to Sunday 15 January.

We’ve made it our most affordable Christmas show ever, with all seats priced £18 for members for many performances, and we’ve increased member discounts to up to 20%. Our new Buy Now Pay Later scheme also means you can reserve your seats today and pay by 31 October. You can book your tickets here: The Snow Queen – Storyhouse