Theatre review: Slava’s Snowshow - Theatre Royal, Glasgow

THE show has finished, their work is done – and yet the six performers in Slava’s Snowshow are still standing on stage, staring out at us. Because now it’s our turn to have fun.

Giant inflatable balls have been unleashed into the auditorium, and everyone within touching distance is doing their utmost to reach up and pat them into the air.

It’s a moment, one of several in this wonderful show, when the children in the room squeal with delight, and the child inside all the adults comes out to play. The show itself comprises a seemingly random selection of vignettes, performed by skilled clowns who can turn their hand to both poignancy and wit. Masters of physical comedy, they use elastic bodies and subtle expressions to elicit laughter from the increasingly joyful audience. An anarchic interval finds them climbing through the audience, spraying water and distributing “snow” (tiny bits of paper) onto unsuspecting but delighted heads.

Vantage points and sight-lines are always important in the theatre, but with Slava’s Snowshow it’s not so much about what you can see, as what you can do. And while the on-stage action is clever, charming and heart-warming, it’s the falling snow, the huge artificial cobweb, the hurtling snowstorm and the giant balls that those in the stalls will remember most – although I suspect those in the rear dress and upper circle might leave fully entertained, but with a mild sense of frustration.

Rating: ****