★★★★

“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.

NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812

Donmar Warehouse

★★★★★

“The performances are uniformly superb, the skin of each character ripped open by the flaming crossbow of passion”

A major comet is visible from earth on average every five to ten years, while a great comet is visible every twenty to thirty years. Although the timescale may be contracted a little, a truly great show appears every once in a while, that forces people to look up and take note. “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” is one of the brightest examples of this phenomenon. Directed by Tim Sheader, Dave Malloy’s searing sung-through musical will scorch itself into our memories for a long time to come.

Malloy has taken a seventy-page segment from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ and moulded it into a passionate, original musical that interweaves the fates of the two protagonists: the story of Natasha’s downfall and Pierre’s awakening. A tale of despair and of hope. Surrounded by a colourful array of characters, it could be a convoluted affair, but Malloy’s libretto clarifies the narrative with mischievous simplicity and imaginative ingenuity. We are propelled into the story by way of the ‘Prologue’; playfully executed like a cross between a memory game and an introductory meeting for a covert club. A few melodious words from each, between the repeated refrain that one of its members is absent. ‘Andrey isn’t here’. Andrey is off fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. His fiancé is here though. The beautiful Countess Natasha, tossed into the centre of the space – a smouldering comet on her journey from gleeful, betrothed ingenue to tragic heroine.

Chumisa Dornford-May grabs the roller-coaster ride of Natasha’s role with complete abandon and commitment. Her songs of innocence capsized by harsh experience. All around her is seduction. The hunters and the hunted; cuckolds and adulterers. In Moscow, waiting for the return of her fiancé, Natasha falls in love with the casually dismissive yet alluringly sexy Anatole (Jamie Muscato in gorgeous, rock-star, swaggering form). Anatole’s sister, Hélène, is delighted by the illicit affair. After all, it is de rigueur. She herself has made a cuckold of her husband – the deeply unhappy Pierre. Cat Simmons’ manipulative Hélène is sultry and sexy yet encased in ice, while Declan Bennett’s Pierre is dishevelled in appearance and self-esteem, yet the heat from his growing awareness can warm the hardest heart.

The performances are uniformly superb, the skin of each character ripped open by the flaming crossbow of passion. We want to know what is going to happen but at the same time want to stay in each moment for as long as possible. Malloy’s score (which he also orchestrated for the ten-piece band) is impossibly eclectic and wonderfully fearless. A mix of folk, anarcho-punk, techno, baroque, chamber and New Wave. One moment heartbreaking ballads, the next storms of dramatic scales and diminished sevenths. The musical numbers are bolstered by the ensemble – one minute a celestial choir, the next a band of whirling dervishes at a rave. The musicians have no break, and just when you think you’ve reached a musical highlight, another appears on the horizon. And the singing is extraordinary – both in virtuosity and emotion. Bennett’s solo number ‘Dust and Ashes’ sweeps us away one moment; then Dornford-May lures us back in with the heartfelt ‘No One Else’. Simmons’ smoky vocals bewitch during ‘Charming’. Maimuna Memon, as Natasha’s cousin Sonya who vainly tries to save her, beguiles with a hypnotic performance and mesmerising voice – her plaintive ‘Sonya Alone’ up there with the peaks of the set list.

Evie Gurney’s costumes are as lawless and rebellious as the score. Like a job lot stolen from the wardrobe of a New Romantic music video they scream sex, drugs and rock n roll. Period and modern, the design mirrors the entire production which defies time and place. We know we are in nineteenth century Moscow, but we could equally be in New York’s Studio 54 nightclub in the nineteen-seventies.

“Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” is a trailblazing show. Against Leslie Travers’ harsh, minimalist backdrop it dazzles at every level. It is spectacular and heartrending, right up to its closing number. Sung quietly to the accompaniment of a simple piano motif, it rises like the great comet of 1812, into an imagined starry sky. It brings with it the promise of a new life. It’s not the end of the world after all. The exhilaration ripples through everybody in the room. A soaring success.

Tag Archives: Recommended Show

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

★★★★

Harold Pinter Theatre

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:

YOUR LIE IN APRIL | ★★★ | July 2024

HILLS OF CALIFORNIA | ★★★★★ | February 2024

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW

We’re now on BLUESKY – click to visit and follow

NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812

★★★★★

Donmar Warehouse

NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812

Donmar Warehouse

★★★★★

“The performances are uniformly superb, the skin of each character ripped open by the flaming crossbow of passion”