The Snow Queen: a play for children by Robert Smith

A wicked magician makes a nasty mirror which cruelly distorts everything it reflects. The mirror shatters and millions of fragments of glass are dispersed round the world.	Faithful to the original text but using appropriate language and designed for school or drama group staging. All the key elements of the original story are retained, the three versions differ only in the amount of lines for each character and the difficulty of the language.
Gerda and Kay are the best of friends until shards of the mirror get into Kay's eye and into his heart. These turn him into a callous, cold youth. Kay is taken by the Snow Queen to her palace in the far north and Gerda sets out on a perilous journey to find her friend and make him better.	You can buy a copy of the script for £25. A cd of the song will cost £7.50 . To order, please send an email to enquiries@plays4kidz.com Thank you for your interest in my work. I look forward to hearing from you. Now here is a sample of the play.

The Snow Queen adapted by Robert Smith from the original by Hans Christian Anderson
SCENE 2 A Little Boy and A Little Girl The Narrators are replaced by two grandmothers. The stage should be dressed as a garden - at least there should be a couple of chairs or a bench and a pot with a large rose bush in it.
GRNDMTHR 1	I am Kay’s grandmother
GRNDMTHR 2	And I am Gerda’s grandmother
GRNDMTHR 1	Kay and Gerda were the loveliest of children…
GRNDMTHR 2	And the best of friends. (Kay and Gerda on stage. Whilst the two grandmothers are talking, the two children play, chat, do nice things etc)
Song 2 When You Have a Friend
GRNDMTHR 1	Our families lived opposite each other in a very narrow street.
GRNDMTHR 2	So they played together all the time.
GRNDMTHR 1	We both had little gardens, full of roses.
GRNDMTHR 2	The children used to love sitting under the rose trees in summer, looking at the sky through the wonderful flowers.
GRNDMTHR 1	One day, they were in the garden, when, just as the clock in the church tower struck twelve, Kay said.
KAY	Oh, dear! What a pain I have in my heart! Ow, something has got into my eye too.
GERDA	What is it? Let me see.
GRNDMTHR 2	Gerda looked, but there was nothing to be seen
KAY	It’s all right, I think it is gone.
GRNDMTHR 1	But gone it was not. It was one of those splinters from the magic mirror.
GRNDMTHR 2	The wicked glass that made everything great and good appear little and hateful, and that magnified everything ugly and mean.
GRNDMTHR 1	My grandson had also got a splinter in his heart. His heart would now become hard and cold like a lump of ice. He felt the pain no longer but the splinter was there.
KAY	Why are you looking so worried? You look so ugly. There is nothing the matter with me. Ughhh, this rose is worm-eaten, and this one is crooked. They are such ugly roses. (He kicks the pot)
GERDA	Kay, what are you doing? What’s the matter? Don’t do that, don’t spoil the rose…
KAY	Ha hah (and he tears off more roses and runs off chanting) Cowardy cowardy custard, can’t stir the mustard (or something similar)

The Snow Queen

adapted by Robert Smith from the original by Hans Christian Anderson

SCENE 2 A Little Boy and A Little Girl

Song 2 When You Have a Friend