Slava’s Snow Show 4.11.24
Invited| Review by Aaron Whittington
This week a snow storm blew into the Sunderland Empire with a show I can only describe as ‘A fantastic immersive visual spectacular coupled with the power of mime – A truly unique experience’.
Slava Poulunin is most famous for creating Slava’s Snowshow, a globally acclaimed theatrical masterpiece that debuted in 1993. Widely known as Slava the Clown, he is a renowned Russian performance artist, clown, and mime celebrated for his poetic and visually stunning theatrical productions. Born on June 12, 1950, in Novosil, Russia, Slava’s journey into the art of clowning began in his youth, driven by a fascination with physical comedy and the emotional storytelling found in silent performances.
Today, Slava is celebrated as one of the most innovative and influential clowns of the modern era, with a career spanning over five decades. His work continues to tour internationally and after seeing this show I can see why. The theme in moments seems dark and others shear humour.
This show demonstrated the art of mime and the profession of clowning to perfection. To be able to command a theatre without script or spoken word, and create laughter from both children and adults. It wasn’t about gimmicks or cheap tricks, it’s creative thinking, fantastic staging and imagination.
We walked into a theatre already befallen with ticker tape imitating snow across the floor. As I was very cleverly sat in the front row centre my guest for the evening proceeded to collect these and throw them in the air to imitate snow fall for a photo. My guest was in her 30’s, but had already taken in by the magic and excitement that this show that promised and of which was about to commence.
This show was all about physical comedy, the looks into the audience from Slava and his clown troupe. The emotion, the sad faces, the smiles. raised eyebrows, the slow long steps or quick mini steps. They created an atmosphere and laughs from situational comedy.
There were also some lovely moments of slow motion that I felt were wonderfully devised in terms of choreography and staging, Slava interacts with the audience and if you’re close to the front then be prepared to get a little wet! (But. nothing too bad so don’t worry!) A stand out scene for me was a coat stand of which the Jacket which hangs off it comes to life through our clowns hand. It genuinely was like watching two seperate characters.
We are brought an immersive quality which is what makes this show like nothing you have seen before. A giant cobweb pulled from the top of the stage and literally pulled across the entire stalls section. A multitude of different size balls are let loose amongst the theatre being pushed here, there and everywhere by adults and children. We had some of our most fun at the interval also, as the clowns come out into the stalls and cause total chaos.
This is called a Snow Show, but the ultimate piece of immersive theatre arrived when we were unleashed into a snow storm. Never have I ever experienced what I did in this moment. Let alone in a theatre! It was immense. Being front row you had no choice but to be in the middle of the storm and wow does it come at you!
Post show I saw comments like weird and wonderful, and yes I asked myself, was there a common theme to the each scene? it seemed not. You didn’t know what to expect however artistically this was amazing. a genuine piece of theatre that you won’t experience like this anywhere. Its immersive nature and genuine humour is fantastic. If you can battle your way through the snow, then try and grab a ticket for its limited run. The Empire was only one of three stops in the UK and I’m genuinely thankful I got to see it!