Erin Harrington reviews The Snow, presented by Wintergreen Creative, at Little Andromeda, Friday 11 April 2025.
The small village of Kishka is cut off from the world, and its neighbouring rival town, by an impenetrable wall of snow, and things are getting dire. Various committees of blathering adults are unable to find a solution, but young Theodore – played by a charming wide-eyed puppet, shared among the performers – is able to use his creative child’s-eye view to find a solution. Accompanied by the town’s greatest heroes, and a gentle mute giant called Oliver, Theodore climbs into a catapault and is flung many miles across the snow to find the source of the problem.
The Snow is a delightful fable about community and connection from prolific Australian playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer. Wintergreen Creative’s production cuts the two-hour original down into a more child-friendly 75 minutes – although very young children might still find this length a little trying, and some of its sections a bit discursive. That’s not a reflection on the production, though. The episodic ‘there and back again’ narrative is engaging and dynamic, managing changes in tone and location carefully.
It helps that director Lisa Allan, and performers Dan Allan, Pete Foley and Damien Jordan-McGrath have been working together on and off for more than twenty years, so the relationships feel relaxed and lived in. The production emphasises physical comedy, some great sight gags and tongue-in-cheek characterisation as we meet a more than dozen well-sketched characters – as well as a very funny flock of wicked seagulls. There are some neat conceits: the embodiment of an echo bouncing across a canyon, the bickering between Kishka and its rival town, Theodore and co’s flight through the air. Throughout, it remains centred on Theodore’s perspective as he discovers the truth underpinning the town’s isolation, offering some real pathos as he explores the literal bank of darkness that separates them all.
The design is evocative. A lovely backdrop of birch trees, painted in blues, greys, and whites by Hannah Beatrice McDougall, recalls the lithographic illustrations of mid-century picture books. Decorated cubes, and simple rustic costuming, help create a setting that feels as if it’s imported from Eastern European folk tales, by way of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This stripped back, tour-friendly set up helps anchor Theodore’s world, as well as the droll tone – something needed to sell some of the more dramatic and absurd moments.
The show is aimed at families, and its Ōtautahi run has afternoon and evening sessions. I attend an evening session with more adults than kids, and the audience is fully engaged, cheering, laughing, singing along at the end. Those kids that are there line up after the show to have their photo taken in front of the backdrop. It’s a charming and idiosyncratic show, both gentle and enormous fun, a quiet balm at a time of distress and chaos.
The Snow plays at Little Andromeda twice more on Saturday 12 April, then plays in Nelson and Prebbleton. Information here.
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