Playful, poignant and visually breathtaking, Slava’s Snowshow returns to Birmingham this autumn. 
A spontaneous and unique feat of high-quality clowning, the production is the brainchild of Slava Polunin, who has been bringing magic to the stage for more than five decades. What’s On caught up with him at his Paris headquarters to find out more about his multi-award-winning show...

To my right, a red piano and red pianist glide past on a green raft, floating on a murky river and playing music into the air. In the distance, I can hear the drums and whoops of a carnival of fools as they dance through the trees. And I’ve left behind a clown riding a bicycle, which pumps out bubbles to a courtyard full of excited children.

In front of me sits the man responsible for this garden of delights: Slava Polunin. With his trademark white whiskers sticking out at right angles from his cheeks, a fool’s cap on his head and his eyes painted black and white, Slava is every inch the clown - and all that is happening around us is part of his world of fantasy and phantasmagoria.

This weekend Slava has turned his home outside Paris, the 18th century Yellow Windmill, and its 10 hectares of grounds into the Pulcinella Festival, celebrating the historic commedia dell’arte character who has featured in theatre for centuries. Strolling through the gardens are hundreds of visitors dressed in fantastical costumes and speaking a host of different languages, here to step into Slava’s imagination for a few hours.

This is a world which also inspired his most successful touring stage production, Slava’s Snowshow, which comes to Birmingham in November.

First staged in 1993, now an international phenomenon, and blending slapstick comedy, heart-wrenching tenderness, dramatic spectacle and moments of wonder, Slava’s Snowshow focuses on the adventures and interactions of a group of yellow clowns and green clowns. It has been seen by audiences in more than 60 countries across Europe, the Americas, the Far East, Australasia and Asia, along the way receiving multiple awards, including an Olivier for Best Entertainment and a Time Out for Best Show.

Many in its audiences are return visitors - and that, says Slava, is because no two performances are exactly alike.

“The show is like jazz; there are notes and points, but then you can do whatever you want,” he explains.

“When you understand your audience, you change it, you hold the moments.

“It’s not like a comedy, where you have repetition of the same gags. It’s very important for us to have the mood and the atmosphere of each performance. People come not to see what is happening in the scene, because a lot of people have already seen the performance and are returning again and again, but because they want to experience what we create - this special atmosphere, this childish feeling of happiness, liberty, joy and playfulness.”

Slava is so determined to ensure the show creates an individual experience every time that he chooses the cast just before each performance.

“We have a team of around 100 people, but I need only up to 15 per show, and we decide in advance who will go on the tour. But then the artists don’t know what part they will play - they find out only 30 minutes before the performance.

“They all try to know all of the roles, and I look at them and decide in that moment if this person is in the mood to play this part today. It’s like a few minutes before the show starts, I put a new key in the lock. I say ‘at what angle will we play the performance today?’”

Slava says that each person in the audience will respond differently to the show, depending on their own experiences in life and even on that particular day.

“There are a lot of layers. There are mundane, everyday things, right through to very cosmic, eternal things. And so I try to make it so that every person in the audience will find their own interest in the Snowshow. For the children, it’s the play; the grandmother will have tears in her eyes because of the destiny of the character; the professor will receive joy from the new language; the punk will have joy in finding it all upside-down; the romantic will see the love.

“This show allows us to return to our childhood. Growing up, people lose the idea of wanting to achieve their dreams. I remind them about it, and they return to what were the most important things in their lives; what they have lost as they grew up.”

Now aged 75 and having spent more than five decades creating and performing magical works, Slava has been living his own dream throughout his lifetime.

“I still think that I am seven years old,” he laughs, gesturing towards the performances taking place around us. “This is my playground and these are my toys. I enjoy this, and people around me enjoy it with me. It’s very easy to be a child - you just have to observe and be surprised and always amazed.”

Slava grew up in a small town in Russia. He enjoyed performing in school productions before moving to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) to join a mime studio. He trained in theatre skills in London and believes the British have a very distinctive sense of humour.

“When I come to the UK, I always play the card of nonsense because that is the UK for me. Lewis Carroll is one of my favourites, and Monty Python was genius; I think they re-invented the attitude towards laughter. That’s why I love the UK - Tommy Cooper, Max Wall, Charlie Chaplin; there are a lot of people who do laughter in the UK. The humour is the best in the world. When I go to the UK, it’s like I am returning to my homeland. This whole show is for the British.”

As a child in Russia, each winter Slava saw the power of snow. It would fall so heavily he could dig tunnels six feet down. It was his playground. But he was also constantly warned about its dangers. So when he came to create a production based on his own experience of life, he returned to that time, and to the idea of snow as both a tiny flake and a potentially cataclysmic force of nature.

“At the beginning, the show was called Yellow and the accent was on the person, the character. But then I realised that it’s not that important that this character exists; it’s what happens to him that matters. This little yellow dot in this endless space in blueness - he thinks, feels, and then tries to fight destiny. And his destiny is snow, and snow is something beautiful and something terrifying. There is the question: when there is a snowstorm and it destroys everything, is it a good thing or is it a bad thing? But in reality, it is both at the same time - and life is like that. Everything in life can be a win and it can be a loss.”

The pianist has long drifted back down the river, and the parade of fools has paused for a break. A group of visitors have discovered our interview spot behind the trees and are waiting for us to finish in the hope they can meet Slava. He gives me a smile to ensure I understand that he is wanted elsewhere, and then turns to welcome them into his world.

Slava’s Snowshow runs at Birmingham theatre The Alexandra from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 November.

By Diane Parkes