Charles Hutchinson finds out why there are eight dwarfs in the latest production of Snow White.

NICK Lane's Snow White is the classic story of a jealous stepmother, a magic mirror, a beautiful girl, a poisoned apple and eight dwarfs.

You read right. Eight dwarfs, not seven, because Lane has a habit of skiing off-piste in his stage adaptations, as Studio audiences at York Theatre Royal will recall from his mischievous versions of Beauty & The Beast and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.

Why eight dwarfs, you ask. "We did throw one idea around, me and Damian Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden, where he said he would love to see me with a broomstick with seven dwarf beards," says Nick.

"When I did Hunchback, I had one of the characters in the story, Gringoire, writing the play.

"The joke was he was a very poor playwright, and so you could get away with him having to play a host of soldiers all by himself.

"I didn't want to do that joke again but I did want the new show to be just as silly.

"So that's the reason for the eighth dwarf, Grimm, who's the only one on stage!

"He's left there as the out-of-work dwarf, who's too tall to be a dwarf, hasn't got a beard, can't sing Hi Ho and is useless with digging implements."

The Grimm world is transformed. "He spends his time being curmudgeonly, living on his own as all his friends have left him, until Snow White comes along, and then he learns it's never too late to let someone into your life."

Aha, so there is a serious message amid all the larking around.

"It's to do with the great innocence of youth. Snow White is so disarming because she's so positive that Grimm can't help but like her. He's been left on his own and he's forced into a situation where he has to look after her, so he reluctantly becomes very fond of her."

Nick's adaptations stay true to the spirit of the original stories but are also attuned to today's audience.

"In the story, the evil queen is forced to wear white-hot metal shoes until she dances herself to death, but that's a bit too obscure for us," he says.

Consequently, he brings his imagination into play to transform a character such as the Huntsman.

"He becomes Dudley Huntsman, children's entertainer, who only wants to blow up balloons and make children laugh but never gets a booking.

"Instead of the liver and lungs of a pig in the original story, we have him saying 'I'll drop off some sausages on my way back'.

"So it's the same old thing but with a different title!"

Nick, the writer and director, is joined in his two-hander by his wife, Fiona Wass, who has performed previously with him in his adaptations of Beauty And The Beast and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

"It is an advantage to have done his plays before," she says.

"I know how Nick's mind works, so I've tapped into that craziness, I guess," says Fiona, who will play Snow White ("Nick hasn't got the legs") and the evil queen Filania.

"Because we've done several shows together, we're very comfortable being with each other on stage and it helps that we share the same humour.

"It wouldn't be much fun if I was serious and constantly came into the rehearsal studio saying 'What's this nonsense?'. It would grind to a halt - though there are moments where I say 'What is this?'!"

Nick welcomes her counsel. "It stops me from being cocky," he says. "Because of your desire for quality control, you need a critical eye, an editor, but one who won't destroy it for destruction's sake."

Snow White, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, March 7 to April 2. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 09:17 Friday, March 04, 2005