THE SNOWMAN at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★

“playful, spectacular and touching”

One Christmas Eve, a young boy’s snowman comes to life and takes him on a journey to the North Pole. The Snowman is a transfixing dance show for all ages in celebration of visual storytelling and Christmas enchantment. In its 27th festive season at the Peacock Theatre, Birmingham Rep’s iconic Christmas show continues to awake childhood nostalgia and childlike wonder.

Take caution. You will have the feature song ‘Walking In The Air’ (Howard Blake) stuck in your head, but the kids love it and so will you! Have a mulled wine and tis the season.

Based on the book by Raymond Briggs and its 1982 film adaptation directed by Dianne Jackson, this performance uses clowning, masks, and ballet to bring the storybook adventure to life. Curtain up and we are introduced to a young boy who wakes up to the joyful discovery that it has snowed. He races outside to build a snowman where he is joined by processions of Christmas carollers and teenagers having snowball fights. This constant flow of familiar characters across the stage makes the world feel ‘real’ at the very top of the show, thus making the gradual reveal of ‘magic’ even more immersive.

The ballet is gorgeous (Robert North) and even more impressive when performed by dancers in giant animal costumes with crafted heads (Robert Allsop) reminding us of Disneyland characters. However, if you are afraid of clowns this might be one to skip. As the snowman is completed and comes to life, his stiff smile and black holes for eyes is slightly creepy. The continuous giggling of kids in the audience may say otherwise. Despite the mask, the snowman’s physicality presents him as a dumb but lovable animation sidekick. He moves with steady and heavy steps, acts the fool, makes fumbles but indulges the young boy’s requests – even stealing a motorcycle. He is Winnie-the-Pooh as a dancing snowman.

Ruari Murchison’s concave design of the stage’s proscenium frame reminds us of the Looney Tunes “That’s All Folks” closing screen, reinforcing the episodic structure of the performance. Each scene holds its own space as a sketch or cartoon which at times quickly overlap for a smooth transition, keeping you (and the kids) spellbound throughout the performance.

It is clear that under the superb direction of Bill Alexander, Birmingham Rep really took their time exploring how to best reimagine iconic moments from the 1982 film to the stage. A standout moment is the scene where the snowman discovers the light switch in the kitchen. Here, a five second moment in the film is transformed into a one-minute comedic transition between scenes that sees the snowman dancing to strobing lights. When we reach the North Pole, the stage adaptation delivers surprises to expand the story from the film. Not only do we meet Father Christmas, his reindeer and other enchanted snowmen, but also a snow queen and a mysterious deviant who might not be a friend to our darling snowman. A welcome pantomime twist that promises some laughs and suspense.

The stage version of The Snowman captures the essence of the animated film whilst making room for comedy, dance and story development with the addition of characters we recognise from other beloved Christmas tales or our own lives. At times playful, spectacular and touching, we are transported to a world that feels both familiar and wonderstruck. The Snowman is magic.

THE SNOWMAN at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd November 2024

by Lara van Huyssteen

Photography by Tristram Kenton

Previously reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

EXIT ABOVE | ★★★★ | November 2024

ΑΓΡΙΜΙ (FAUVE) | ★★★ | October 2024

STORIES – THE TAP DANCE SENSATION | ★★★★★ | October 2024

FRONTIERS: CHOREOGRAPHERS OF CANADA | ★★★★ | October 2024

TUTU | ★★★ | October 2024

CARMEN | ★★★★ | July 2024

THE OPERA LOCOS | ★★★★ | May 2024

ASSEMBLY HALL | ★★★★★ | March 2024

AUTOBIOGRAPHY (v95 and v96) | ★★★ | March 2024

NELKEN | ★★★★★ | February 2024

THE SNOWMAN

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★★★★★

“the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins”

Writer, composer, director, choreographer and producer, Romain Rachline Borgeaud is the force behind RB Dance Company. Formed in 2018, the aim was to mix tap dancing with urban jazz, bringing the former to a ‘darker, more grounded, heavier place’. Borgeaud fell in love with Gene Kelly when he was a young child, citing him as the reason he started dancing. His passion for movement and music drove him to take the art form and fearlessly experiment, but at the same time paying tribute to traditional musical theatre. “Stories” was born, parts of its early inception making their way into the finals of France Has Got Talent (“La France a un Incroyable Talent”).

The mix of traditional tap with modern street jazz, urban music and rap has produced a simply stunning and sensational fusion. Thrown into the mix are production values that tip the scales. A synchronicity with lighting, sound, percussion and music stirs in its precision as well as its emotional punch. “STORIES – was born from a gathering – that of a pack driven by a persistent, vibrating, visceral need to move” writes Borgeaud in the slightly esoteric programme notes for the show. But while the performers are moving, we are motionless, rapt and frozen in our seats almost afraid to blink.

The show is not just a dance piece. Yet it isn’t musical theatre. It is cinematic in its scope but intimate in its language. The story follows Icarus – a young actor – under the oppressive control of his director. He’s desperate to escape, but unable to. There are obvious parallels with the Greek myth of Icarus, with the director being a Minos figure. The narrative follows an equally labyrinthian arc that is sometimes hard to unravel, but the beauty is that the interpretation belongs to us. There are references to Faust too, but also a strong link to the feelgood, golden age of the nineteen-fifties and the likes of ‘Guys and Dolls’. All coated with a fine glossy veneer of Film Noir.

It is all brilliantly told and despite being written, directed, choreographed and scored by the one man, there is a clear-cut collaborative feel. Loosely split into four segments: ‘Run’, ‘Stop’, ‘Fall’ and ‘Rise’, it is seamless throughout. Without pause, the coordination never misses a beat or steps out of line. Alex Hardellet’s lighting is an essential part of the choreography – the virtuosity of a concert pianist is required to operate the cues at the desk! Federica Mugnai’s constantly changing set designs are as intricately woven into the staging, at times flowing to the rhythm like big-budget CGI transitions. The trust between performers and creatives is an unbreakable bond. But moreover, the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins.

Tap dance as you have never seen before, brought high-kicking right into the twenty-first century. “Stories” is cross generational – modern but steeped in traditional virtuosity. It has its own vocabulary, yet there are no words. Instead, the emotional fragments of the story are swept up into a breathtaking music and dance spectacle. After seventy-five minutes we are quite breathless but would gladly continue watching for another seventy-five. Unmissable. In short, ‘incroyable’.

THE SNOWMAN at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★

“playful, spectacular and touching”

THE SNOWMAN at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd November 2024

by Lara van Huyssteen

Photography by Tristram Kenton

Previously reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

THE SNOWMAN

THE SNOWMAN

STORIES – THE TAP DANCE SENSATION at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★★

“the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins”

STORIES – THE TAP DANCE SENSATION at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd October 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Aline Gérard

Previously reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

Stories

Stories