Meet the cast of Snow White And The Happy Ever After Beauty Salon

Rehearsals are well underway at Salisbury Playhouse for the upcoming festive production of Snow White and the Happy Ever After Beauty Salon.

Opening on the 8th December, this festive family show puts a contemporary spin on a classic tale. Set in a magical 1950s fairytale wonderland, young apprentice Snow is working hard in her Aunt Trish’s Beauty Salon.

To hear more about the magic behind this festive fairytale, Love Salisbury caught up with the cast of Snow White and The Happy Ever After Beauty Salon.

Cast:
Greg Barnett (King)
Rebecca Cooper (Queen)
Jake Mitchell (Federico)
Martha Pothen (Trish)
Consuela Rolle (Snow)
Director Gareth Machin

What can audiences expect from Snow White and The Happy Ever After Beauty Salon?

Consuela: “Magic. It’s a really special show”.

Greg: “We are really working to make sure it is for all ages. I think whoever comes is going to find a level that really works for them. We are having such a blast in the rehearsal room finding the humour that is coming back after a couple years of lockdowns, it’s so lovely being in a space and knowing we are going to get to share it with the audience soon as well. We want everyone to leave on a high”.

Gareth: “It’s a brilliant retelling of a classic story – it is Snow White but with a bit of a twist. There’s dancing, there’s comedy, there is something for everyone. It’s created by the team who have been making pantomimes here for the last few years so it’s got brilliant design, fabulous costumes, and the production values that our audiences have grown to love. They can expect a big, fun, magical, family show”.

What other characters might we meet along the way?

Rebecca: “The twist is you suddenly realise you are meeting different characters from fairyland. So there’s lots of different ones”.

Gareth: “It is reimagined in a 1950s fairytale wonderland so there are characters from other fairy stories and little cameo appearances. The main characters who you wouldn’t necessarily expect are Aunt Trish who runs a beauty salon and her apprentice Federico. Trish and Frederico are the two characters that Snow meets and interacts with, and then there are lots of other characters that you will all recognise elsewhere”.

What has been your favourite part about this production?

Rebecca: “Getting stuck in straight away, has been good fun and it’s good to blow the cobwebs away for me”.

Greg: “Most of us are playing lots of different roles as well so it is getting our teeth into all the different characters. There is one scene where we’ve got about 12 different accents going on so we are really enjoying that. The dancing as well, it is so lovely to be in a room and have a big old boogie everyday”.

Jake: “It is great fun doing the puppetry as well. Instead of the seven dwarfs it’s the seven moles so in act two we all bring out mole puppets and that’s really fun”.

How does it feel to be returning to the stage for a festive show this Christmas?

Greg: “It’s the perfect time to come back. The fun of it, we all love what we do for a living that’s why we do it, you wouldn’t be an actor if you didn’t love it but to come and do something like this is better for the soul than going to do a serious Chekhov in this moment I think coming out of a tumultuous couple of years it’s lovely to jump up, have fun, create – just being in a creative process – it’s the perfect time to do it”.

Consuela: “We are having a lot of fun, it is nice to be back from lockdown because it was a hard time for actors and coming back around Christmas where families can all get together and there is a nice feeling in the air it is just really nice to come back”.

A lot of the cast have performed in Salisbury before, how does it feel to return to the Playhouse and Salisbury audiences?

Greg: “Yeah most of us have worked down here before, and Salisbury is one of our favourite places to come especially at Christmas.

“I can’t wait to get in front of the audience. I was here the Christmas just before lockdown and this building and everyone that works here are great to work with. It’s a really lovely team to work alongside, and the audiences were so into it and love their Christmas shows here so you can really feel the tradition down here. Then you come out afterwards and meet them and people just genuinely love the theatre and what we have got to offer so it’s a really special place to come and work”.

Martha: “I have never been to Salisbury and I have heard the best things about the audiences so I can’t wait to meet you all!”

What do you think about this modern take on an old classic?

Gareth: “All these fairy stories need a bit of reinvention now. Within a contemporary context, this is a really clever way of sharing the Snow White story that is exciting and relevant for an audience today.

“It enables us to have fun with it and surprise the audience, there will be a lot that feels very familiar but also things that people won’t be expecting and that is part of the fun as well.”

See Snow White and The Happy Ever After Beauty Salon from the 8th December – 31st December. Click here to book your ticket.