Slava's Snowshow

Slava’s Snowshow is a true classic, a performance of traditional clown, that has been seen by over 7 million people. And finally it comes to Brisbane, so it’s our chance now. This review is chock-full of spoilers so don’t read on if you want to go and let the full whimsy overtake you. However, knowing the show has existed in pretty much the same form since 1993, I suspect pretty much every spoiler already exists so reader, I give you the choice. That said, it is regularly a new cast, there are skills added, and scenes wrapped up, so in essence The Show exists as a multitude, both a simple thing and a complex creation.

As a lover of all things clown, I have been eagerly anticipating its arrival. This show, and its creator Slava Polunin, has a near idol position in the memories and stories of other clowns. I love the way clowns talk about other revered clowns, always with an eager recognition. For this Australian season, many of the talented cast are locally recruited (the full cast listed at the end of this review). It is well worth spending some time reading up about Slava and his repertoire if this kind of thing interests you, as clown has a deep history, and he was an innovator, a dreamer of the highest order, who once gathered 800 mimes in a parade through Leningrad in 1982, at a time of great control of artistic practice… One might think this famous mainstream production is a million miles from that place, and yet, the two performances are cousins, and one feeds the other. I digress.

[A side-note: Unfortunately no female-presenting clowns in the evening I attended, which was a shame, and I hope the show stretches to include some of our fantastic female clowns in the future, as clown really does surpass gender, and a show that can survive 30 years can surely envelope gender parity.]

Image credit: Veronique Vial

It is a larger-than-life spectacle. It’s premise is a collection of classic clowning skills and rotuines, up to and including the infamous red noses. The show takes the form of a series of vignettes that roughly arc in and around the loneliness of winter, the futility – and glory - of friendship, the darkness of trusting others, the inanity of the masses. It has chaotic dreamscapes galore, sombre moments of beauty and pathos, and a full suite of classic routines and slapstick repertoire.

My black heart was delighted by the dark beginning, in which we meet a yellow clown who is so very sad that he wraps a rope loosely around his neck. A sordid start to a all-ages family show! Although it was done in such a way you might have thought that was not the intention, but no, remember, these are clowns. If a clown appears to be dark, rest assured that it is most definitely intentional.

For all of my anticipation, my contemporary-trained sensibilities continued to flail for a coherent storyline… and was left wanting. There is no story here, no real redemption, no discernible character arc. Just the yellow clown, and the green clown, and the other green clowns, in their icy cold clown world. The irony was not lost on me, that this is a show about the loneliness of winter being performed in the heart of summer, for an audience many of whom had rarely seen a frost let alone a frozen winter in their short lives. I suspect the impact of the cold is felt better in countries where it actually gets cold.

This is an old Russian clown show so there is no expectation of a snappy pace, and for much of the show the timing was pin-drop perfection, but here and there the timing was skewwhiff, dragging where it should have been poignant, dull where it should have been murderously suspenseful, for which i attribute to some opening night settling into a new venue. At times the masterful use of simple props put tears in my eyes, or had 11-year-olds screaming heckles, which is always fun. The physicality of the performers was fantastical, with wonky walks and fabulous punctuation by means of their hats, classic elevator lifts and other fun gimmicks. At same time I felt there was an over reliance upon minutiae of facial expression, that made it quite hard to discern the subtleties from halfway down the giant concert hall room. This is a suggestion to cough up for the good seats people, and make it worth your while.

Image credit: Vladimir Mishukov

There were marvels galore, and an endless stream of giddy slapstick, which is the simplest and most beautiful form of comedy that exists. It punches neither up nor down. To understand it requires no language not even the speech of toddlers, for they too grasp the innocent amusement of slapstick effortlessly. To try and fail is the human condition, we know it implicitly.

The clowns are Real Clowns, with red noses, and dumpy distorted bodies, and big hats that get in the way and augment their every movement. They are short and tall and dumpy and larger than life and cheeky and perfidious and loyal and cunning and dumb and righteous and clumsy and masterful. All at once.

This image and cover image by Andrea Lopez.

My personal favourite scene was a coat and a hat placed on a hat rack and animated in such a way to suggest coy romance, love, loyalty, loss, departure… Absolutely beautifully done, it touched me deeply. Other gorgeous scenes were the dining table set on a sharp lean, and the classic broom and ladder muck-up.  Tiny balloons that were revealed in the cutest and most unlikely places. The chaos of the ensemble descending into the audience to cause mischief brought a smile to every face.

And of course, the awe-some use of the whole room props, which in and of themselves are superb theatrical experiences. To be wrapped in a world of spider web, a thousand hands reaching up like a creature out of nightmares, rushing the tangle towards you. The hugest of snowstorms billowing and you in the eye of the storm. And the gorgeous denouement accompanying the opening night standing ovation, where the audience become fools themselves, playing in a field of the mind-bogglingly huge colourful beach balls, presenting a real and true spectacle, the faces giddy, the audience rapt, every eye on the heavens, every arm outstretched. The clowns watch from the stage.

It is the oldest of the fool’s tricks, across history, across millennia, to ask who is really the fool, and who laughs at whom. If it is done with finesse, we all laugh with each other. A fitting metaphor to carry into the night for this classic performance of a delightful artform.  

Cast for January 11, 2023, Concert Hall QPAC Brisbane.

Vanya Polunin
Dmytro Merashchi
Onofrio Colucci
Chris Lynam
Nikolai Terentiev
Bradford West
Clint Bolster
Mitch Jones
Ira Seidenstein