Venue: Old Fitzroy Theatre (Woolloomooloo NSW), Dec 6 – 22, 2024
Playwright: Mike Bartlett
Director: Jo Bradley
Cast: Claudia Elbourne, James Lugton, Lilian Alejandra Valverde
Images by Robert Miniter

Theatre review
Political discourse seems to be in a state of unprecedented turmoil, as reflected in Mike Bartlett’s Snowflakes, a play about conflicting values and the possibility of resolution. Maya had left home shortly after the Brexit referendum, no longer able to tolerate her father Andy’s beliefs and opinions. Several years later, Maya and Andy attempt a reunification at Christmas time, but peace does not come easy.

It is a discussion we need to have, much as it is an inevitably fraught and upsetting one. The chasm between us is ever exacerbating, and in Snowflakes we certainly observe how challenging it is for our minds to meet. Bartlett provides for Andy’s more conservative side ample, and possibly excessive exposition, often maddening with his obstinacy, much as the text attempts to imbue him with endearing qualities. The role is performed by James Lugton, whose admirable precision and personal charisma helps to sustain our interest, but some viewers will nonetheless find tiresome, the unceasing efforts to make Andy likeable.

Lilian Alejandra Valverde plays Natalie, a peacemaker character, with excellent vitality and passion. Maya makes her entrance later in the piece, via actor Claudia Elbourne who brings a youthful idealism valuable to the narrative. Valverde and Elbourne represent the progressive side with palpable passion, even though the writing seems to provide insufficient material to help them argue their case.

Director Jo Bradley has the unenviable task of making the family drama resonate in tandem with the combative politics that become increasingly apparent through the duration. The tender aspects of Snowflakes are probably not as persuasive as they should be, but the production’s rendering of adversarial dynamics is undoubtedly compelling.

Set and costumes by Soham Apte are effective in their depictions of time and space. Lights by Luna Ng are sensitively calibrated, to convey shifting moods and on occasion to add some theatricality, to the show’s essential realism. Sounds by Daniel Hertern are understandably restrained, in a story that emphasises the normalcy of these fissures in our daily connections.

As a young queer woman, Maya has come to the realisation that the system is designed to work against her. Understanding that much of what is traditional and customary serves a hegemony that she wishes to dismantle, everything her father stands for can only be seen as disdainful. In time, she will learn that Andy too suffers from the system’s failures, albeit through different manifestations, and learning to work against the system and not individuals, should help her find a more harmonious existence.

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