Peter Pan On Ice - The Russian Ice Stars

Peter Pan On Ice

The Russian Ice Stars

Congress Theatre

Eastbourne

9-13 March 2011

Show Seen 10th March

Cast: The Russian Ice Stars

Once again the team behind The Russian Ice Stars have transformed the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne into a magnificent, temporary, ice rink for their latest production, Peter Pan.

I always enjoy these shows. The costumes are lavish and colourful, the skaters are all highly skilled professionals and there is something to impress an audience member of every age group.

Impressive jumps at speed, juggling with fire, superb lifts and wonderful choreography it's all in there with so much more.

The large cast are pretty much consistent from year to year and for those of us who go every year these silent stars become very familiar faces.

Peter Pan is tackled from a different, but clever, approach. The story is seen through the eyes of the story's author, J M Barrie, who is played by the hugely talented Valdis Mintals. I thought this made a nice change from simply looking at the story being played out as it conveys, by expression and actions alone, the thoughts of Mr Barrie as his tale progresses from one chapter to the next.

Tall Valdis, who started skating at age 4, is always impressive especially with his speed and complicated jumps. However my wife who would go to see him even if he had the skating talent of Todd Carty! I really wanted to tell her she is old enough to be his mother, but she isn't (quite).

Valdis's partner between 1998-2002 in the World Championships, European Championships and many other top international competitions was Viktoriya Shklover who plays the marvellous, petite and very sweet Wendy in this production.

Pan is portrayed by Dmitri Naumkin who's accolades include winning the World Junior Championship in 1995.

My personal favourite is Ekaterina Murugova because I think she is such a brilliantly expressive performer, every expression clearly conveying thoughts and emotions. In Peter Pan she dons the wings to play Tinkerbell.

The villain, Hook, is the responsibility of Andrey Chuvilyaev. The former member of the Russian Senior team really deserved to have some kids in the audience to boo him, panto style, as he and his shipmates took great pleasure on tying young Wendy up with nice thick rope.

I love the subtle humour that is built into these productions such as Mr Darling (Denis Sorokin) who when he can't find his 3 kids even looks under a pillow (the boys are about 6' tall wearing awful brightly coloured traditional striped pajamas) the poor man clearly needs help! Or watching little Tiger Lilly (Olga Balandina)  pathetically trying to gnaw her way through 1" thick rope.

I find these shows refreshing. The one show I watch each year where you interpret a show without language. Yes in Peter Pan there is a little narration to "hand hold" those who really cannot follow a story through expression and interpretation but it is quite minimal. I think this is mainly for the benefit of any kids in attendance.

Incidentally at £4 the programme for Peter Pan is extremely good value. Wildrose Productions always produce a high quality publication that contains good photographs, cast biographies and a full explanation of what occurs in each scene. With so many programmes now priced at between £5 and £10 containing far less this is a souvenir worth buying.

So was everything perfect in Neverland? Did Tinkerbell work her magic on the feet of our all professional skaters? Well their feet seemed to be fine but she seemed to have put a curse on one particular section of the icy stage.

The very front, right section of the Congress Theatre stage must have had a problem. When one skater, perhaps two, take a fall in the same place you can put it down to bad luck and coincidence. But when the figure hits at least 5 falls and 2 very close escapes you have to wonder if there's a problem with the ice?

It must be difficult. Every stage is different in levelness and "bounce" and no matter how these temporary rinks are laid I don't think you are ever going to recreate the perfection of a purpose built rink. Even sitting where we were you can see undulations in the surface and this must have an effect.

I did notice as the show progressed jumps were being landed more centre stage rather than at the front perhaps to avoid this dodgy area?

I know the Dancing On Ice judge, Jason Gardiner, would not agree but what is important is not the falls in these shows but how professionally the recovery is. In every case if you had blinked and missed the fall you would never have known it happened. Up in an instant, smiling and on with the show as true pros do.

Probably thinking "s**t that bloody hurt!" or whatever the Russian equivalent is but never conveying that to a sympathetic audience. And sympathetic I was, particularly to the first lad who came a cropper. He was wearing little more than a loincloth as his chest thumped down on to the ice. Ouch! Waxing is probably less painful!

It does highlight ,seeing these falls, that no matter how impressive these productions are they are never a walk in the park, even for seasoned professionals.

Two shows in a day plus an additional 3 hours rehearsal time can never assure you a flawless performance. One small imperfection in the ice is all it needs to raise the audible gasps from the audience.

I'm of the opinion that when you go to see an ice show you are rarely going to get a flawless skate and it's how the show entertains overall which should be judged.

In a play if the script is forgotten or ad libbed we laugh. It doesn't stop it being a great play. When skaters fall down OK we don't laugh but it should be judged like an 'outtake' in a play.

At the end of the day we enjoyed yet another great show by the fabulous Russian Ice Stars and should they return in 2012 we'll be back again!

Spare a thought for the crew after the last show in Eastbourne on 13th March when they will be taking 7 hours breaking up all that ice and removing it from the stage only to have to do it all again at the next venue. A lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes and sometimes as the audience member I don't think we always appreciate that.

Many thanks to the show's production manager, Sam Clarkson and production co-ordinator, Julian Deplidge for allowing me to get some unique views of an icy Congress Theatre stage.

Finally If you get the chance to see The Russian Ice Stars on tour please do so. Like us, with Peter Pan you may just become "Hooked"!

Created with flickr slideshow.

Snow White On Ice The Russian Ice Stars Review

Snow White On Ice
The Russian Ice Stars
Congress Theatre Eastbourne
24-28 February 2010
(Show seen 24 Feb)

Cast: The Superb Russian Ice Stars

"I enjoyed it. I didn't understand half of it but I enjoyed it... the skating was brilliant" "Are those the gnomes... surely those aren't the gnomes?" "Snow White doesn't have Hula Hoops" "Are they chickens?" "This isn't the true Snow White Story" "Are they Russian because they are called The Russian Ice Stars? Do they all come from Russia?" "I can't follow the story!" "They haven't got the right music"

Those aren't my words but the words from a rather loud, irritating, old lady who was sitting behind me.

This is not the first time we have seen the marvellous Snow White On Ice performed by the Russian Ice Stars we saw the show a few years back again at the Congress and both times we have had a rather culturally ignorant, inconsiderate adult behind us.

But then again the lady this time was also moaning that somebody in her party had just had a bad fall in The Congress and that it would inconvenience the coach party on the way back because she had been taken to hospital. I'm sure the unfortunate lady didn't mean to fall down and lets hope she's well.

Well back to Snow White (and the 7 gnomes, apparently) on Ice.

Those of you who drop in to these reviews regularly (thank you) will be aware I reviewed Cirque De Glace last year - that was outstanding.

Snow White On Ice is equally outstanding in professional skating terms. What these professionals achieve by way of complex jumps, lifts, spins and tricks in such a small area is amazing.

Yes there was a fall and a couple of minor stumbles but if you take into account the thousands of different skating tricks that are performed in each show you are always going to get the odd small mishap. As true professionals do, the one female skater who did fall just got up and got on with the show as if nothing had happened. She was actually really unlucky as she had been sent off balance by the slightest clashing of skating boots with a fellow performer.

Let's return to my dear "friend" behind me and her constant grumbles.

"This isn't the true Snow White Story" Actually dear .... it is! What adults seem to expect is a copied adaptation of the Disney movie. The Russian Ice Stars presentation comes from the internationally accepted original version of the fairy tale. A summary can be found on Wikipedia. Alternatively if Mrs Moaner and the rest of her party had invested in just one programme between all of them they would have found the FULL clear story (and printed in ENGLISH too) for both acts over two pages inside.

To be fair though the original story varies VERY little from the Animated Disney favourite. What is lacking here is the ability of a small number of mature adults to interpret a good set, skilled choreography on ice, facial expression, costumes and body gestures and work out the story from putting all that together.

You may have gathered that there is no narration in this show whatsoever. This minority of adults cannot seem to understand a show without words leading them through the tale.

If anything I thought the huge number of children who went to this performance would be a little confused.

On the contrary childhood imagination seems to outweigh the ability of many an adult. No crying children just cheers, screams of delight and lots of laughter at the funny bits.

The 7 gnomes!! I was waiting for Mrs irritating to ask "who is dopey?" - I had an instant answer to that one but sadly that's the one comment she never made. Anyway the dwarfs (yes dwarfs love, not gnomes)  were correct both in number and costume. The reason she wasn't happy with her "gnomes" was probably because they ranged in height from about 4' 8" to 6'+. Yes I guess it's a little unusual for one of the dwarfs to be 2' taller than petite Snow White but I can imagine its a little difficult finding genuine 2' tall Russian dwarfs who all happen to be professional skaters. Again the kids didn't have a problem with the dwarfs' height so why some adults do is beyond me.

The official preview video, above, has not been "glammed up" by the production company Wild Rose Ltd in any way. It is the exact quality of presentation seen in the show. At the end of my review I have posted a genuine feedback video from people who have actually seen the show and appreciated this excellent production.

All the skaters are so talented it seems harsh to pick out just a few for mention but I will anyway.

Irina Tkachuk as Snow White has by far the most choreography to perform during the 2 long acts. She is perfect as the vulnerable Snow White and in addition to her formidable skating ability her ability to tall a story through facial expression is spot on. Prince Charming, Valdis Mintals is perfectly cast in the role and I think he went down well with the ladies (I think this is mentioned by somebody in the video below too).

Oh I almost forgot Queen Drina (Svetlana Kuprina - female) and her alter-ego Ugly Drina (John Hamer - obviously male) We had to laugh at one point when there was a quick switch by Queen and Ugly Drina at the stage's left wing. My "friend" behind who had been quiet for at least two minutes piped up with "She got changed quick". I don't know who should be more worried Svetlana or John that she hadn't noticed they were different sexes.

Seriously though both versions of The Queen were super throughout and eventually a lady sitting next to my noisy fellow audience member managed to shut her up when she said "and I don't like that evil witch" to which the response was "you're not meant to!" It's a true sign of a good baddie when at the end they are welcomed by a chorus of boos in addition to the applause.

I have therefore only mentioned 4 hugely talented people from an equally impressive cast of 21.

It is an excellent production which comes highly recommended to all ages - but please buy the programme for £4 - it is one of the best programmes I've seen in a long while and the true Snow White story is there for all to see.

Above these are the published dates after Eastbourne in 2010. Use the ticketmaster link (top right) to find additional performances

The Russian Ice Stars Cirque De Glace Review Congress Theatre, Eastbourne

Wednesday 4th March , Congress Theatre Eastbourne, The Russian Ice Stars perform Cirque De Glace

Wednesday 4th March 2009

The above trailer of this production is already enough to convince most people that this is an impressive action packed show.

However, whilst the Russian Ice Stars normally eventually release their shows on DVD this is one show that needs to be appreciated live at least once.

As far as ice skating goes this cast's performance honestly makes Torvill and Dean look utterly boring in comparison (even in their heyday).

The speed these performers are able to achieve on such a small stage (in comparison to an ice skating ring) is unbelievable. But speed alone is not enough. To have that speed and perform the most complicated lifts, jumps, tricks and to do them all flawlessly is another matter.

Yes I can honestly say there was not a single missed landing from any jump or trick. It wasn't our first experience of these talented artists having previously seen Snow White - but whilst beautiful that was a much slower paced show - and there were several fluffed landings.

The action is non stop and the first half of the show has the bonus of multiple pyrotechnic displays in addition to effective strobe and other lighting effects.

The pyrotechinics I have to say are outstanding. Never have I seen so much fire on one stage whilst that same stage is still occupied by so many performers. All I can say is there must be some effective flame retardent material in use! I'd also almost put money on somebody being just off stage fire extinguisher in hand.

We were at the front and the heat from the flames was amazing - the warmest I have ever known the Congress Theatre!

But the Russian Ice Stars are not just about skating they also have amongst them incredible gymnasts and talented contortionists performing feats that make your jaw drop with not a safety net in sight!

The second half of the show is a less pyrotechnic and special effect laden affair but is no less entertaining.

The reason for this is that Cirque De Glace has been so cleverly put together. It isn't just a thrown together sequence of acts but a portrayal of Man's effect on Earth from the dawn of time itself.

Hence the first half pyrotechical bias. The formation of the planet, erupting volcanoes, lava flows, early man, the Druids - all events to which fire has a big relevance.

The second half is more about what man has done to ruin the planet. Tree felling, heavy industry, commercialization being just a few examples.

Cirque de Glace is more than an ice show. It is a show with a message that just make you think as well as being entertained.

If I had enough money I would gladly have gone to see this show every night of it's Eastbourne run. With so many talented performers on stage there is always so much to look at that you always miss something.

It was also encouraging to see Cirque De Glace had drawn in such a large audience but there was something strangely missing from that audience - children. We found this incredibly odd. If there was ever an ice show that would get kids thinking about taking up the sport this is it - yet there were no children and just a few people under 40. I can't see that one child would have gone home from this show without enjoying it.

I hope a few people get to read this before the end of Cirque De Glace's tour and opt to take their children along. They will love it!

The only thing I wonder about this show is how the heck the Russian Ice Stars will ever top this with their next production? Snow White, Peter Pan and Barnum are a few previous productions but as far as impressive constant entertainment, special effects, action and talent goes this show will take some beating!

But when they do that next production we won't hesitate to see it.