It will be snowing in Wakefield this week, and if not the real thing, it will be “magical”, as director Lisa Allan returns to her home village with her Christchurch-based theatre troupe.
Wintergreen Creative will be bringing a cast of just three actors – plus a puppet – to perform Finegan Kruckemeyer’s The Snow at the Wakefield Village Hall.
“And yes, there will be snow and it will be delightfully low-fi!” While low-fi, she says it will still create magic.
Lisa’s passion for theatre goes back to her time with Wakefield Country Players and she left the village to train as a theatre-maker in the late 90s. She went on to create the Nelson Fringe Festival with husband Dan Allan, and for much of the past 20 years she has been working in theatre creation and theatre teaching for the Court Theatre in Christchurch.
The couple spent two years in Dunedin, studying towards Master of Fine Arts degrees in Theatre Studies, before returning to Christchurch where The Snow has been running for a season. Now, she is bringing it home to Wakefield for one show.
“It’s always lovely coming home; there’s something really nourishing about returning to your roots and sharing what you’ve learnt away from home.”
Dan is one of the cast of three and Lisa says the trio – and their puppet - have to work hard to cover multiple characters in the play.
In the play, the snow plummets to Earth like never before and it is up to young Theodore Sutton to save his village from isolation. His plan is to fling a bunch of heroes out of the village in a catapult, which sparks an adventure reminiscent of a Grimm’s fairytale.
The cast, plus their families, will descend on Lisa’s parents for their time in Wakefield and she is hoping to spend more time around the village in the future as she and Dan become parents in a few months. The anticipation of their first child has made her think about making precious memories for families and she hopes the play adds some extra joy and “a bit of silliness” into people’s lives when there is so much to navigate in today’s world.
“We have created a show for children and adults to have a good giggle together and to engage in one of the most beautiful acts, that of shared imagination.”
The Snow, with its low-fi snow, will be held in the hall on 27 April at 2pm. Tickets are on sale here.
