Ice, Ice, Baby

Amidst the deluge of Christmas plays currently running in theaters around town, EarlyStages’ first nighttime production, Snow Child, is a breath of fresh air. Billed as a “Russian folk tale,” the play is a charming winter’s Pinocchio, with the much-desired child made out of snow rather than wood, and the good fairy a Russian spirit named Baboushka.

Snow Child opens with Katya, the kind-hearted wife of a toy-maker named Dimitri, fondly teaching a group of neighborhood girls to make bread. The couple, unable to have children on their own, treats the girls as if they were their daughters. But, as always, the children must return home at the end of the day, leaving Katya melancholy and wishing for a daughter of her own. As a gift to his wife, Dimitri fashions a little girl out of snow, and he and Katya make a New YearÕs wish to Baboushka that the child will become real.

Though the storyline itself is not exactly innovative, the details of the script and the set vividly transport the audience to a faraway place. EarlyStages’ production makes use of such simple devices as howling-wind sounds and a chilly room temperature to create a cold outside home for the child, who once brought to life is nonetheless made out of ice and snow and cannot come in to the warm home of her new parents. Using Russian names, accents and folk traditions surrounded by a blanket of powdery snow, Snow Child puts an unexpected cultural twist on a well-worn tale.

The action of the play is upbeat, with rapidly moving scenes and energetic performances from the entire cast. Though it lags here and there (one young audience member hummed to himself throughout an entire scene), Snow Child is on the whole entertaining, instructive and thoroughly colorful. Unlike other holiday fare, Snow Child won’t leave your children begging for Christmas presents, though they may yet yearn for a few flakes of snow.