I have delivered post in some wonderfully named places in my time.
But Stifle?
That sounds less like somewhere you settle down and raise a family and more like somewhere you accidentally take the wrong bus to and spend the next three hours trying to escape.
Nevertheless, Stifle is where Northern Stage is taking us this Christmas, as the theatre prepares to transform Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen into a brand-new musical adventure – and we now know who is coming along for the journey.
Northern Stage has announced the cast and creative team for its new production, which runs in Newcastle from 3 December 2026 until 2 January 2027. Written by Laura Lindow and directed by Northern Stage Artistic Director Natalie Ibu, this new version promises original music, imaginative storytelling and a journey from a tiny village all the way to the frozen realm of the Snow Queen.
Already, I have concerns.
Mostly regarding footwear.
You don’t travel from a North East village into a frozen magical kingdom in December without a decent pair of boots. That’s just common sense.
At the centre of the story is Gerda, played by Lola Aluko, whose life in Stifle is apparently quiet, orderly and rather regulated.
Then Kai turns up.
There is always a Kai.
Suddenly Gerda has a friend, discovers that life might contain rather more possibilities than she realised, and presumably starts thinking that Stifle isn’t the entire universe.
Unfortunately, the Snow Queen then enchants Kai and whisks him off to her frozen realm.
Bit rude.
So Gerda does what any determined heroine worth her winter coat would do: she goes after him.
Her journey takes her beyond everything she has ever known and through strange, elemental worlds as the story expands from the intimacy of Stifle into something altogether more epic.
Lola Aluko returns to Northern Stage after appearing as Lennox in its 2023 co-production of Macbeth, while Meg Watson takes on the roles of both Joan and the Snow Queen.
Which means I shall be watching Meg carefully.
Never trust anybody who can change identity halfway through an evening. It’s one of my rules.
Kai is played by North East-born Nick Mudditt, making his stage debut, while Wilf Stone – another North East performer – plays Mr Kelpine. Alice Blundell returns to Northern Stage as Elsie and Michael Blair, a North East actor and musician with a history at the theatre stretching back to 2013, plays Dad.
And this is where I started getting particularly interested.
They play instruments.
The production’s multi-instrumentalist ensemble will perform live on stage, creating a musical world influenced by folk traditions with touches of Scotland running through it. We’re promised fiddles, accordion textures and atmospheric soundscapes that can apparently become rather uncanny.
Fiddles, accordions and an evil icy monarch?
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Music is clearly not being treated as something to bung underneath the action when everybody stops talking. It sits right at the centre of this version of The Snow Queen.
Sam Partridge is Musical Director and Composer, with music and lyrics from Hatty Carman and Tom Rasmussen. Partridge also has his own Newcastle connection, having developed his musical practice next door to Northern Stage at Newcastle University before later teaching there.
That local connection runs throughout the production.
The Snow Queen also forms part of Northern Stage’s Scale Up project, supporting artists to
develop their careers and gain experience at mid-scale level. Anna Robinson, who began her
journey with Northern Stage as a youth theatre participant before becoming a set designer with
the Young Company, will step into the role of Associate Designer, marking her first experience
working at mid-scale.
And I like that.
Christmas theatre doesn’t have to mean parachuting something sparkly into a city for six weeks, packing it back into a lorry and disappearing in January.
This one sounds as though Newcastle is actually stitched into it.
Natalie Ibu says the team has already held its first musical jam, bringing together North East musical performers with the production’s folk influences. Apparently she laughed, welled up and got goosebumps.
That’s quite a productive first meeting.
Most meetings I’ve attended have achieved a biscuit and somebody saying, “We’ll circle back to that.”
She promises families plenty of “music, magic and merriment” when the finished production reaches the stage.
And perhaps that’s the bit that has caught my attention most.
We all know The Snow Queen. Or at least we think we do.
But a new musical version, created in Newcastle, filled with live folk-influenced music and North East talent, sounds like something rather different from simply dusting off the old story and sprinkling artificial snow over it.
Although I assume there will still be snow.
You can’t call it The Snow Queen and give us drizzle.
I would complain.
And I know where the Theatre Village complaints form is kept.
The Snow Queen runs at Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne, from Thursday 3 December 2026 until Saturday 2 January 2027. The production is recommended for ages five and over and has an approximate running time of two hours and 30 minutes, including an interval.
As for me?
I’ll bring my scarf.
Just in case.
— Grace Hatchell
https://northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/the-snow-queen
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