THE SNOW BABY. To 27 February.
Young People
THE SNOW BABY
by Terry Jones adapted by Catherine Wheels
Polka Adventure Theatre To 27 February 2005
Wed-Fri (+Tue 18 Jan) 10.30am & 2.05pm Sat 10.30am, 12.30pm, 3.15pm Sun (not 22 Jan) 12.30pm & 3.15pm
Runs 55min No interval
TICKETS: 020 8543 4888
www.polkatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 January
Delighted audience reactions and complete involvement in Snow Baby's antics confirm this show's excellence.This delightful show for 3-5s began life last year at Stirling's Macrobert, where the studio, or Playhouse, is dedicated to work for young people. It was produced by Catherine Wheels, a theatre company based in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, which has quickly established a leading position in theatre for the young. The woman at its centre was then played by Wheels' director Gill Robertson. Now recast, but with the same director, designer and composer, the piece is as fine as ever.
This year the play seems funnier than before, but that may be because it's so emotionally powerful that the humour was under-represented in the memory. Or it may be that Patti Clare as the woman alone at Christmas-time gives a bright edge to the character, finding unforced fun in the playful snow-child who lands through her cat-flap.
This visitor, whose journey down from, and ultimately back to, a star, is visually tracked, comes as simultaneous surprise and delight. Jay Manley's production keeps the audience waiting as Miss Kendall seems to be looking everywhere except at the source of mysteriously moving objects and sudden chill gusts in her home.
It's clear Snow Baby, mischievous and loving by turns, inspires Miss Kendall to a relationship she enjoys and where she's taken out of self-absorption by being needed. Indoors and, as shadow puppets out in the snow, the two speed happily through Christmas. A sledge dragged out of storage, a smile as she prevents Snow Baby being borne too far aloft by a balloon, both indicate her new lease of life.
It's no dispraise of Clare to say that Snow Baby, operated sympathetically by Ramon Abad, all but steals the show. Carefully crafted by Scottish theatre's leading puppeteer Shona Reppe this creature's slightest move, or the angling of the head, has full human expressiveness and vivacity, all the stronger because of the deep-level awareness we're responding to a puppet.
Snow Baby's only visiting for Christmas, but has enriched Miss Kendall's life beyond then. Ours too; this revival confirms Catherine Wheels' piece on the short-list for future Christmas classics. It should be seen everywhere.
Miss Kendall: Patti Clare
Man: Ramon Abad
Director: Jay Manley
Designer: Karen Tennent
Puppet: Shona Reppe
Music: Robert Burlin
2005-01-17 09:49:47