London.

SNOW PLAY
by Marcello Chiarenza adapted by Patrick Lynch.

The Bloomsbury Theatre 15 Gordon Street WC1H 0AH To 11 January 2014.
10.30am 6-10 Jan.
2.30pm 4, 11 Jan.
Runs 50min No interval.

TICKETS: 020 3108 1000.
www.thebloomsbury.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 December.

Seasonal fun and seasonal theme in fine children’s show adults can also enjoy.
Several things make a Lyngo show such a fine experience for young people. But the chief one is their characteristic mix, in terms young audiences (in this case 3-8s) can appreciate, of fun and fundamentals. There’s no doubting the enjoyment on offer at Snow Play, whether from a seat in the stalls watching what’s going on, by joining in from there – or taking the steps up to the stage when invited and helping with the action.

If you don’t want to, that’s fine; nobody’s forcing you. No young person should ever feel nervous or discomforted with Lyngo. But there’s plenty of opportunity to join in. Whether it’s sweeping the snow in the house Mr Green owns but where Mr White has taken root, or in the culminating mass snowball fight between Mr White and the audience.

Then there are the performances of Carlo Rossi and Patrick Lynch. Rossi, the tall, somewhat remote one, Lynch the more voluble, the one who talks to the audience, encourages them, shows emotion in his responses to Mr White.

This is partly a practical matter, but it introduces audiences to two types of adult. And there’s something apt, as well as funny, in Mr White’s first words being soundless, because of the closed window between him and us.

All this is tied to experiences young audience can grasp. There’s the quarrel over whose house this is. Summery Mr Green returns from a Mediterranean holiday to find wintery Mr White claiming possession. It would be too much to claim a battle of Harold Pinter intensity for the territory, but there is a battle, Lynch’s colourfully attired Green energetic and argumentative, Rossi’s White taciturn and unmoveable. Who is The Stronger – to bring Strindberg into the discussion?

Mention of these dramatic heavyweights isn’t frivolous, but a sign that Lyngo understands themes which are basic to human activity. And which underlie human experience. For, however many – or, at one point, heavy – the snowballs, in the end it’s the sun what wins it as the natural cycle of the seasons restores the house to its once-again rightful owner.

Performers: Patrick Lynch, Carlo Rossi.

Director/Designer: Marcello Chiarenza.
Music: Cialdo Capelli.

2013-12-25 12:24:40