An Unseasonable Fall of Snow
Review by That Guy In The Foyer, John Doherty
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Boyslikeme Productions. Holden Street Theatres, The Arch.
Until March 20, 2022
New Zealand Playwright, Gary Anderson’s An Unseasonable Fall of Snow is a tightly written mystery with distinctly existential themes. Echoes of Pinter, and perhaps Beckett, too, resound in the dialogue. The script is rich in the hallmark qualities of the Theatre of the Absurd; questions of existence, emphasis on abstract values of life, vagueness about time, place and character. But the similarity ends with the sheer intensity of the play’s eventual denouement which can’t be mentioned without giving the thing away!
Entering, we are immediately assailed by discordant modern jazz and find Arthur (Gavin Cianci), a sharply dressed middle aged man, seated at a square table poring over documents in a file. The setting could only be a briefing or interrogation room. Design is simple and outstanding only for its hues of brown and two adjoining white doors upstage. A white- board simply has the letters AJP written dead centre.
A young man in his mid to late twenties, Liam (Jacob Houston), enters nervously, is greeted in a firm manner, then immediately berated for his lack of verbal dexterity in responding to his interrogator. In this, the echoes of Pinter’s The Homecoming seemed apparent. The interrogatory sparring begins, pummelling us with questions of existence, morality, ethical behaviour and the basest of human instincts, particular as regards the masculine ego.
A Sydneysider now residing in Adelaide, Director, Darrin Redgate, has done a sterling job. The dialogue and action are wound tight as springs; when they uncoil, released, the tension is explosive!
Intense and, on occasion macabrely comical, An Unseasonable Fall of Snow may not be a play for everyone. An audience must be sure to pay close attention to the details of the narrative and the ever-shifting subtext.
I found An Unseasonable Fall of Snow thoroughly engaging, and Gavin Cianci and Jacob Houston’ dynamic performances brilliant.
A Fringe offering of high quality.