★★★★

“funny and innocent theatre”

If you are looking for the most delightful, happy Festive show for everyone to enjoy then look no further – Slava’s Snow Show has arrived at the Harold Pinter Theatre, in a welcome return to the West End.

Asissai the clown (Slava Polunin) shuffles out onto the stage dragging a long rope, wearing his now iconic baggy yellow onesie and huge fluffy red slippers, his drooping red plum nose, white mad hair and beard and sad hollow eyes – and then, with a pantomime sigh that shudders through his whole body, so begins this curious, nonsensical, funny theatrical experience like no other.

Slava is soon joined by a younger doubleganger and in tiny, mirrored movements the show takes flight. A green clad clown wearing a wide propeller shaped hat and traditional long clown shoes arrives and bows low and disappears. Then another and another green clad clown, until there are five identical green clad clowns in a row, apart from the fact that they are all very different heights – from small to very, very, tall!

They are all beautiful, yes, this quirky magnificent seven are all truly beautiful characters, and it is funny and innocent theatre.

Just go with Slava’s Snow Show, and let the performances gently wash over you, as scene by scene these mime clowns discover little and bigger balloons, bubble machines, human size snow globes, a sailboat, and even a giant cobweb that closes the first act.

The second act is not quite as seamless as the first but there is a wonderful scene with the younger doubleganger Slava, continually sliding off a chair as he tries to reach for a bottle of wine. Slava/Asissai, as they are one and the same, delivers his famous phone routine with his extraordinary high and low voices speaking in gobbledygook, slightly slows down the magic of his journey with his suitcase, his tender dancing with his coat whilst it hangs on a coat stand, to his train with smoking chimney hat, hurtling towards the magnificent snowstorm show finale.

With a recorded soundtrack of traditional Russian folk tunes, sound effects, soprano singing coming out of one of the green clowns, the theme tune of Chariots of Fire to Carmina Burana, the music fits the astounding action on stage throughout.

The cast, other than Slava Polunin’s Asissai, remain nameless, even in the programme they are not even mentioned. These anonymous artistes are truly top-class classical clowns – who are indeed, truly otherworldly creatures with no names.

I saw Slava’s Snow Show some 30 years ago when it was first created by Slava Polunin – and there are moments that I have never forgotten. Those scenes are still some of the most magical and theatrical coupe de théâtres to behold. I am not going to even try to describe those special effects in Slava’s Snow Show as it would take away some of the joy for a first timer to the show.

However, with so many of the audience filming during the finale and with today’s social media, I fear how much longer Slava’s Snow Show’s secrets will stay safe.

The audience leaves with a gentle other worldly smile on their face, having experienced clowning magic.

HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS

Arcola Theatre

★★★★

“Although lacking the traditional sleigh bells and Santa, it does have sufficient nostalgia, silliness and giggles to fill a panto-shaped hole”

In case you’re wondering, “Hold on to your butts” is a line from Samuel L Jackson as he is about to reboot the computer systems of Jurassic Park in the 1993 ground-breaking monster flick.

It’s a terrible title for a fun evening but, I suppose, theatre company Recent Cutbacks can’t stick “Jurassic Park” anywhere near the poster for legal reasons.

But the copyright holders need not fear for their intellectual property. It’s in safe hands. This madcap shot-for-shot re-creation of the mega-dinosaur smash is made by people who adore the movie. And love movie-making.

It’s 10 years since this slick whistlestop tribute opened in New York City, later wowing crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe and now setting up at the Arcola under the direction of Kristin McCarthy Parker. Although lacking the traditional sleigh bells and Santa, it does have sufficient nostalgia, silliness and giggles to fill a panto-shaped hole.

This production takes you back. Not just to Steven Spielberg’s genius film, but to your garage, or garden, or park. Where on a rainy Sunday, with nothing else to do and the wifi down, you and your mates stumble upon a cardboard box from Tesco which once held pineapples. The box becomes everything – castle, racing car, majestic pirate ship scything the seven seas…

Here, two performers and a sound artist perform a similar feat of ingenuity and imagination in this lo-fi, charming and very funny evocation of the original.

What’s that you say? A herd of serene brachiosaurus sweeping across the plains of Isla Nublar? Here you go. A mosquito trapped in a piece of amber? A barley sugar will suffice, no?

Performers Jack Baldwin and Laurence Pears tread the fine line between slavish adoration of the original and good-natured fanboy parody. On the sidelines, but equally a star, is foley artist Charlie Ives recreating T-Rex roars, rainstorms, computer beeps, creaking branches and everything else that helps make the fun funnier.

The humour is often of the Airplane! variety – aforementioned (pre-Pulp Fiction) Samuel L Jackson’s growing smoking habit an example – and much of the joy is in the anticipation, figuring out how two men and some props retrieved from a trash can are going to make a car fall through a tree, or create the tension of a raptor hunt. And there’s much humour to be mined in the script too – such as Jeff Goldblum’s wry “chaotician” delivering his memorable brow-knitted cod-philosophies studded with Pinteresque ‘umms’ and pauses. Or that perky and patronising strand of DNA explaining how cloning works.

It helps to know something about the film because the sheer challenge of miniaturisation does lend itself to some confusion, but the iconic scenes are all there as anchors – the ripples on the cup of water, T-Rex going to town on a toilet-bound Donald Gennaro, probing a big pile of dino-poop, sweaty Wayne Knight, girlie Laura Dern…

This is the perfect night for anyone who’s ever seen a stack of cone party hats and thought – three of them, artfully placed – there’s my triceratops!

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

Harold Pinter Theatre

★★★★

“funny and innocent theatre”

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

Harold Pinter Theatre

Reviewed on 18th December 2025

by Debbie Rich

Photography by Veronique Vial

Previously reviewed at this venue:

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS

Arcola Theatre

★★★★

“Although lacking the traditional sleigh bells and Santa, it does have sufficient nostalgia, silliness and giggles to fill a panto-shaped hole”