Jack Frost – stunning production design brings the ambition of opera to a frozen world of lore (The MAC until Thursday 1 January 2026)

Jack Frost is an ambitious new show that creates a snowy adventure full of peril by weaving together strands of disparate mythology and festive lore with bright music and stunning production design. The MAC’s main Christmas show – one of three that will be running in the building – takes the figure of ‘old man winter’ and injects it with Allison Harding’s rich imagination. Soon the master of cold is joined by friend Neve, an owl (Hoot), a snowman (knowingly named Jon Snow) and eventually St Nicholas to fight back against the dark plans of Cailleach and Krampus.

I’ve been attending and reviewing Christmas shows for a long time, and Jack Frost is almost uniquely difficult to categorise. At this time of the year, many shows aim to leave you with a big warm hug. This one entertains and surprises while keeping the festive cheer to a minimum and shunning schmaltz. The design and musicality are very operatic: no huge surprise given NI Opera’s chief executive is the director, and his hand is all over the sumptuous detailing of the multi-layered costumes and elaborate headpieces. A number of his regular creative collaborators from the opera world contribute to this show.

Niall McKeever’s monochromatic set is a bold gamble that pays off. An intricate miniature village lights up to give a sense that Jack Frost and his friends are sitting outside humanity. White pyramids with sleek lines zoom across the stage on castors. An enormous snow globe – technically some kind of spherical bell – hangs over the stage, doubling up as a screen for interjections by King Alban (Richard Croxford) and Queen Thaloria (Colette Lennon). The chilly look is later warmed up by the appearance of the more colourful Saint Nicholas.

This is a dark tale of menace, anxiety, fatal blows and the chance that the hidden village of Lunareth, and indeed the whole world, is about to change forever. The first ten minutes comprise of a long voice-over followed by a snowball fight while dancing and singing in harmony. Only then do we witness the first conversation and hear the character voices of Jack and Neve. But once they start talking, there’s no stopping them. Parts of the dialogue in the first half wouldn’t be amiss in the form of a soliloquy on stage at The Globe. Turn the snowman into a fellow with a mid-life crisis and the owl into a psychologist, and it could nearly pass for a French baroque tragedy.

After the interval – which gloriously, yet pertaining to little or nothing in the plot, begins with Hoot the owl getting a moment in the spotlight and losing his snark to turn into a strigine version of Shirley Bassey – the pace picks up as the gang of five help Jack Frost quickly work his way through a riddle, a choice and a challenge, and reach the final facedown to save winter from relative disaster. The puppetry extends its ambition from a single owl to include large scale shadow figures.

Jennifer Rooney’s rich choreography is demanding, particularly in some of the musical numbers. Katie Richardson’s brilliant score brings drums to the fore when peril is at its height and throws in sleigh bells for the slightly too cheesy final number. The cast continue singing while taking their bows which seemed to impede last night’s audience from feeling it was time to applaud. The committed cast deserve a longer moment to bask in the gratitude for a job well done.

Allison Harding finds space in her script and lyrics (there’s a great verse that rhymes “chaos” with “delicious”) to take fun jibes at performance art and adult concerns for structural integrity and dignity. But the darkness soon returns with ominous lines: “soon the children will wake screaming in the night”.

As an adult I found myself leaning into the world-building and the unfolding mythology that was very unfamiliar. (If, like me, winter folklore was skipped over in your primary school, Cailleach is a Celtic crone and Krampus is a half goat/half demon from Alpine traditions.) A bit too much concentration required. The occasional video appearances by the Queen and King seemed superfluous.

While the modern cinematic approach of cutting scenes sooner than expected (“arrive late, leave early”) and allowing the audience to fill in the gaps or live with ambiguity doesn’t quite translate to stage, there’s an element of over-explaining that slows down the first act. Jack Frost is a show that’s can’t easily be left to wash over you. Children in the audience seemed to be fascinated by Jonathan M Daley’s dramatic lighting and McKeever’s playful set, and some even sang along with the chorus of the original songs. A lot of younger weans ended up sitting on an adult’s knee, a place of comfort and safety from which to watch this tale of uncertainly unfold. At times this show looks more fun to act in than to watch.

Conor Quinn’s Jack Frost has lots of energy and a good rapport with Eimear Fearon’s Neve who gives off big sister energy coaching Jack through his fears and lack of self-confidence. Together they share a sweet duet in the second act. Darren Franklin once again proves his versatility playing Jon Snow, beginning as an actual snowman with twig arms and fingers, and then as a reformed figure (“no longer made of snow … a fully formed bloke”) who spends much of the first act talking to himself until others take over his existential angst after the interval. (Watch out for the ‘farty’ sound effect when Jon Snow moves.) Mark Dugdale joyously brings to life the puntastic and sardonic owl who feels “bird-ened with responsibility”. Sean Kearns’ St Nicholas is immediately a figure who can be trusted, accessorised with demi-lune glasses, a red cardigan and slippers.

Nine years ago, Rosie Barry was stomping around the MAC stage as Primrose, a sulky teenager with a 3DS (can anyone remember those!), returning the next Christmas as Gretel in a reimagined fairy tale that ended with her closing the show seated at a teary piano. Now she’s back as a baddie, the villainous Cailleach, dressed in dark icy layers and a vicious fringe that would perfect for late night partying on Hill Street. Her expansive vocals rock Richardson’s melodies and turn them into power ballads, blending so well with Jack Watson’s baritone voice (Krampus) giving the two baddies great presence on stage.

Jack Frost is produced by the MAC and continues its run until Thursday 1 January.

Photo credit: Carrie Davenport 

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