REVIEW: Snow White at Young People’s Theatre
One might think a theatricalized version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves would demand a cast of, at minimum, eight people.
Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre has said, “nope!,” and endeavoured to create a complete Snow White with only two performers: YPT artistic director Herbie Barnes and JD Leslie at the performance the Intermission team attended, and Sort Of star Amanda Cordner and Ken Hall at other performances. It’s not publicized which team performs on which days.
What ensues on the Ada Slaight Stage is a silly, often improvised, high-energy afternoon of storytelling, with fragments of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale hurled between Snow White and her dwarf at a breakneck pace. Small costume pieces — a hood, a blanket, a hat — suggest different characters, and Barnes in particular as the rolodex of dwarves tries on several shades of vocal mask, ably disguising himself as each of the myriad characters he plays. Leslie’s role is more consistent — for 90% of the show, she’s Snow White, charming and childlike and appropriately whimsical.
Director Aurora Browne has found admirable balance between Barnes and Leslie — a delicate middle ground between freneticism and groundedness. Though at the show we attended, the performances didn’t always feel impeccably polished, the duo always look like they’re having fun — and that translates into the audience’s experience. Through choreographed movement and an impish give-and-take between the two figures onstage, Browne has created an enjoyable wander through the surprises within playwright Greg Banks’ text. The show is a little long — at 85 minutes, there were certainly some squirms on the afternoon I, our digital manager Janice, her husband and their two kiddos attended — but at its best, those minutes melt away as Barnes and Leslie banter with each other (and with us!).
A YPT outing would be incomplete without, er, YP. That’s why we brought along Celeste, 9 and Felix, 5, and asked what they thought (because, at the end of the day, this show is for audience members like them, not me). Overall, they enjoyed Snow White — it was a completely different version of the story than they’d previously known, and they found some of the physical business between Barnes and Leslie unspeakably fun — though they too found the show a little lengthy in its final third. It bears mentioning that this Snow White is darker than the Disney treatment; we meet the Huntsman and witness a few “violent” deaths. But the Grimm element is never overplayed, and as such succeeds in adding some texture to the story kids might have known before.
Visually, the show is lovely, making it almost feel like a pop-up book. Brandon Kleiman’s set and Laura Gardner’s costumes competently create a storybook feeling onstage, and Gardner’s costumes in particular make Snow White and her dwarves feel like grown-up-sized kids rather than grownups. Siobhan Sleath’s lights, too, are just the right amount of spooky when they need to be, evoking a suspenseful atmosphere without sacrificing the comfort of the show’s littler audience members.
The study guide YPT has created for the show is fantastic, with some fascinating exercises for school groups who might attend, including a game to help kids suspend their disbelief in the case of minimal props and a how-to for teachers to demonstrate the idea of “tableau.” The curious spirit of YPT shines brightly in that study guide, reinforcing the importance of drama in the classroom while also allowing students to have fun and explore at their own pace.
This Snow White is an intimate and relatively simple affair, but even in its simplicity it pieces together a low-stakes, highly amusing fairy tale for kids who might still be learning what theatre is and what their place in it could be. The improv element here is pretty fun, and the cast often demonstrates heartwarming chemistry. Who ever said it took more than two people to tell the story of Snow White?
Snow White runs at YPT through November 21, 2022 – January 7, 2023.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's former senior editor and the theatre reporter for the Globe and Mail. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Adam Francis Proulx, Elm Reyes, Kay-Ann Ward in a Fringe promo photo by Joy Adeola.
REVIEWS: Toronto Fringe Festival 2025
This collection of Toronto Fringe Festival capsule reviews will be updated throughout the festival with writing from 20 different critics.
iPhoto caption: Masae Day, Landon Doak, and Michelle Fisk in 'The Wind Coming Over the Sea.' Photo by Lyon Smith.
REVIEW: A new Emma Donoghue musical takes root at the Blyth Festival
As a resident of southwestern Ontario, what struck me most is how deeply rooted in the region The Wind Coming Over the Sea feels. It's a lively reminder of the cultural inheritances that continue to shape the area today.
iPhoto caption: The cast of 'Major Barbara.' Photo by David Cooper.
REVIEW: Shaw Festival’s metatheatrical Major Barbara is sharp and subversive
Director Peter Hinton-Davis draws on a light smattering of Brechtian techniques — acknowledgements of artifice that enrich and vivify Major Barbara’s clash of morals.
iPhoto caption: The company of 'The Frogs.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Staged inches from the audience by director Griffin Hewitt, the show commendably captures the free-wheeling, anarchic spirit of the text. It’s a toad-ally great opportunity to see this rarity in the froggy flesh.
iPhoto caption: Jeff Lillico as Ralph with Yoshie Bancroft as Mitsue in 'Forgiveness.' Photo by David Hou.
REVIEW: Stratford Festival’s Forgiveness tells a deeply personal story on a sprawling scale
Presented in an increasingly tense political moment, Forgiveness resonates on a level that is part reflection, part warning.
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Luminato Festival.
REVIEW: Is Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree worth seeing twice at Luminato?
Crouch tests the limits of theatrical representation, improvisation, and authorship. While I’m usually a sucker for exactly those types of experiments, I ultimately found An Oak Tree a bit underwhelming.
iPhoto caption: Adam Francis Proulx, Elm Reyes, Kay-Ann Ward in a Fringe promo photo by Joy Adeola.
REVIEWS: Toronto Fringe Festival 2025
This collection of Toronto Fringe Festival capsule reviews will be updated throughout the festival with writing from 20 different critics.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Aisling Murphy.
In the darkest months of Yukon winter, it’s all about the Sun Room
I’m here for a week in January as a guest of Nakai Theatre, a hub for theatrical experimentation and outside-the-box programming in Canada’s westernmost territory.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Liz Appel headshot courtesy of Liz Appel.
Five questions with Wights playwright Liz Appel
Intermission spoke with Appel over email for a brief Q&A about Wights, now playing at Crow’s Theatre until February 9.
Call for applications: Publishing and editorial assistant
Intermission Magazine is seeking a dynamic and collaborative individual to join our team.
iPhoto caption: What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
Announcing What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
What Writing Can Do is timed to coincide with the Grand and Theatre Aquarius’ co-production of Waitress, which will serve as a jumping-off point for discussions throughout the Lab.
iPhoto caption: A Christmas Story production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: A Christmas Story feels fresh at Theatre Aquarius
If you want to catch A Christmas Story before it closes, good luck — the show is close to sold out, and with the talent on that stage, it’s not hard to see why.
Comments