Ruth Smillie, Globe Theatre reimagine fairy tale The Snow Queen

In 1844, Hans Christian Andersen published one of his most popular fairy tales, The Snow Queen. In 2015, Ruth Smillie has reimagined it for Regina's Globe Theatre.

Smillie is the Globe's artistic director and had the pleasure of working with Andersen's story.

Here is the synopsis:

"When the Snow Queen captures the Queen of Elves, the entire world is plunged into darkness and cold. Two elfin children, Kai and Gerda, set out on a perilous journey to rescue their queen with the help of a host of magical creatures."

Smillie herself described it as a beautiful and moving story.

"I just love the story and I love the idea of doing a play set in a really cold place," she told Saskatchewan Weekend host Eric Anderson.

While Saskatchewan residents know all about living in a really cold place, Smillie said it was great to dive into the story's Norse mythology.

"The same world view and the same kind of magical world also inspired Tolkien and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series," she said. "So that's the world of trolls and gods and goddesses and dwarves and elves and dragons and monsters."

"I just had a wonderful time," Smillie said, laughing.

But it wasn't something that happened overnight. She said she spent a year researching.

"It's quite a different take," she said. "But it's designed to be very theatrical, to really engage a broad cross-section of audiences from really young people to senior people and everybody in between."

The Snow Queen began its run on Thursday and continues until Dec. 27.