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Regional Reviews: Minneapolis/St. Paul Snowflake Also see Arthur's review of Outside Mullingar
The character Snowflake appears in the guise of his creator, Gale La Joy, after tossing a satchel containing his worldly possessions from behind a ramshackle fence made of mismatched boards and corrugated metal. In the yard on our side of the fence is a junked VW beetle, an enclosure containing various discarded objects, and random boxes and crates. Right off the bat, we learn that Snowflake is a hapless soul. Passing through the door into the yard, the string attaching his mittens together catches on the hinge. As he undoes this snag, he is locked out of the yard, and just finding a way back over the fence is a balletic comedy of ups and downs. After creatively deploying some of the objects strewn in the yard, Snowflakes opens the hood of the VW to reveal his personal refuge—a bed that pulls out, a window on the upturned hood draped with homey curtains, and a beside lamp housed in a teddy bear. Snowflake picks up the pillow and holds it tight, causing feathers to fly up. As they drift down, he scampers about, determined to catch each one as if they were the coin of the realm. Then Snowflake spies a large billboard mounted above the fence, a billboard depicting a happy and prosperous family—father returning from work briefcase in hand, boy and dog running to greet him, aproned mother standing at the front door. As he compares that scene to his own downtrodden one, his demeanor changes from light-hearted to sorrowful. He tries to comfort himself, but to no avail. In a box mysteriously thrown over the fence into his yard, Snowflake finds a man-doll the size of a ventriloquist's dummy, with a dejected expression on his face. From this point on, Snowflake's mission is no longer to comfort himself, but to bring joy to the man-doll with all manner of entertainments. His efforts include a crazy ballet to "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" with a kitchen curtain as a tutu, creating a frisky dog out of a beat-up brown suitcase, playing "Over the Rainbow" on a crosscut saw, donning a pair of skis to miraculously travel over and around his yard, and more.
The children watching this program at the performance I attended were utterly delighted, giggling and calling out with joyful abandon. I noticed that it did not take long for the children to understand that Snowflake was funny. The laughed not only at what he did, but in anticipation of what he would do—or might do—next. It is impossible to separate Gale LaJoye's simple narrative from his performance, or for that matter from the character. LaJoye does not portray Snowflake; he is Snowflake. Using posture and facial expressions, he conveys a range of feelings, and with precise athleticism perfectly executes the parade of unlikely movements. Victor Zupanc's music provides an aural landscape on which Snowflake's escapades play out. The set creates a world in which Snowflake can be real, and the subtle lighting changes to reflect Snowflake's feelings and the arc of his day. Snowflake is a great show for young children, perhaps their first taste of live theater, but is also recommended for anyone who wishes to feel the power of creativity and caring to overcome want and blight. In the real world this may not be so easily done, but LaJoye has given us a gift in being able to connect with the potential inherent in his vision, for the child-like to guide the adult. Snowflake continues at the Children's Theatre Company through February 22, 2015. 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN, 55404. Tickets: $10.00 - $58.00; lap tickets for children under 3: $5.00. Discounts available for groups of 10 or more. For tickets call 612- 874-0400 or visit childrenstheatre.org. Writer and Director: Gale LaJoye; Composer: Victor Zupanc; Lighting Designer: Craig Gottschalk; Original Lighting Designer: Rebecca Fuller Jensen; Stage manager: Jenny R. Friend; Assistant Stage Manager: Jenny Brass; Original Stage Manager: David Kerr. Cast: Gale LaJoye (Snowflake); Dean Holt (Understudy for Snowflake).
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