Slava's Snowshow ( Slava's Snow show )

Slava's Snowshow (DVD) (*)

$29.99

Original Title: Slava's Snow show
Language Selections:
Silent ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
Silent ( Dolby Digital Stereo )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
60 min + 10 min extras

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Short Film

Movie filmed in 2001 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Wayne Harrison
Andrew Higgie

Written By:
Wayne Harrison
Andrew Higgie

Actors:
Slawa Polunin
Elena Ushakova
Ivan Polunin
Robert Saralpov

Synopsis:

There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time. There may be snow in the UK, depending on how wrong the Met Office's assurances of a mild winter prove. There is, however, a guaranteed snowstorm at the South Bank until the early new year, courtesy of Russian clown Slava Polunin and his not-so-merry men. First created in 1993, Slava's Snowshow famously climaxes in a man-made blizzard: tons of ticker-tape blasted into the audience using a wind-machine, to the rousing bombast of Carmina Burana, complete with dazzling head-on beam. Those near the front may need to avoid oohing and aahing to escape asphyxiation by shredded paper. No theatre or circus finale quite compares with this - and as an added communal pleasure, Polunin and co release into the auditorium a batch of giant coloured balls that slowly bounce off up-stretched arms, as if everyone had been invited to play a slow-motion, slightly ominous game of beach-ball. That crowd-pleasing send-off sits at odds with most of the preceding hour or so - apart from the web-like membrane that's fast-trailed over the spectators' heads to bring the first half to an abrupt end. The rest of the show is oddball in a far more contained way - a procession of artful, wordless vignettes which conjure - to the strains of birdsong, forlorn fairground echoes, electronic bleeps, ghostly train whistles and bass rumbles - a landscape that bobs between dream and nightmare.

Slava Polunin, the most celebrated clown of our age and founder of the Academy of Fools, is a poet and lover of live audiences. His visual and musical shows are amongst the classics of modern stage performance. The Slava' Snowshow has been presented in all the world's capitals as a journey through an absurd and surrealistic universe. With Slava and his green companions, the boundary between the stage and the audience is purely imaginary: soap bubbles, gigantic spiders' webs, snowstorms and unexpected flying objects combine irresistibly to draw spectators of all ages into the charm and fun of the performance.

Polunin, now in his sixties, has talked about his desire to restore a sense of childish wonder to adults; that's not the same as having produced a work fit for children. This is a show that begins with a visual gag about hanging yourself and it's worth emphasising that, for all the bubbles and bouts of water-squirting, many of the antics may leave younger viewers either cold or cowering.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 26 March, 2012.

Customers who bought this product also purchased

Underground New York (DVD)	L'Emmerdeur (DVD)	Quarter to Two Before Jesus Christ (1982) (DVD)
The City of Nine Doors (DVD)	A Pain in the Ass (DVD)	Vesku from Finland (DVD)