Created (two decades ago now!) in Moscow by the master clown, Slava Polunin, Slava’s Snow Show has toured internationally ever since, playing to audiences now counted in the millions. It first played Sydney in 2000, and had another Australian tour in 2009. Now it’s back, treat yourself: this is one of those rare, magical theatrical events that is for everyone and transcends description.
The staging is sensational, to say the least. Full of vivid spectacle – the bubbles in the first half, the shattering, blinding coupe de theatre (to the music of Carmina Burana) that is the finale, Slava’s Snow Show is also full of childlike wonder, joy and imagination. A bed, curtain and broom become a sailing ship. A crew member is washed overboard and rescued (beware of the sharks!) Scary things lurk inside the cupboard.
Constructed around a series of short vignettes, the show also includes a group of the clowns conducting the audience in various sounds, reactions and applause. The set is made to look like hanging felted panels decorated with stars – which are reversed for the finale and turn out to have wonderfully textured soft sculptures on the back.
There is a terrific cast of eight, with Slava’s role – the lead clown, dressed in yellow and red – shared by Robert Saralp and Derek Scott. The other clowns wear long green coats. All wear traditional clown makeup with whiteface, red nose, extra long black shoes and here, winged hats. They evoke a sense of loneliness, and all have very sad eyes. Observe how in the first half the yellow clown tries to kill himself – at first with a lllllooooonnng rope, before trying to electrocute himself (using balloons on a wire) before finally there comes a Saint Sebastian-like scene where he is punctured with arrows. (The ‘death scene’, in which he plays heavily to the audience, is brilliant). At various points the action is very funny, at other moments extremely poignant and moving.
The production is magnificently acted, featuring wonderful use of expressive mime and excellent comic timing, as well as the use of slow motion. The sharp-eyed will spot allusions at one point to Gogol’s The Overcoat, and at another what seems to be a Laurel and Hardy-like routine. A trio of the green clowns miming to ‘Blue Canary’ is another hilarious highlight.
The audience is covered in dry ice, smothered in theatrical ‘snow’, and at interval the cast continues the performance and ventures into the audience. (Warning! If you are in the first few rows of the stalls you will most probably get wet.) The audience, emotionally involved throughout, was ecstatic at the opening night of this production, and could have stayed for hours playing with the ‘snow’ and giant balls.
Rapturous, wondrous, spellbinding theatre.
Rating: 4 stars
Slava’s Snowshow
Artistic Director: Vladimir Filonov
Sound Technician: Gleb Titanyan
Light Technicians: Sofya Kostleva Denis Minakov
Stage Technician: Oleksiy Tofymchuk Vitaly Galich
Company Manager: Eleen Dolmatova
Performers: Robert Saralp, Derek Scott, Andrey Klimak, Evgeny Perevalov, Ira Selberstein, Nikolai Terentiev, Aelita West, Bradford West
Running time 1 hour 45 mins (approx) including one interval
Theatre Royal, Sydney
7 – 23 June
Additional dates:
Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane: 26 – 30 June
Canberra Theatre Centre: 3 – 7 July
Comedy Theatre, Melbourne: 17 – 28 July
