Skip to main content
Snowflake, Kiln Theatre London
Mike Bartlett's Christmas cracker an antidote for post-election blues
PIC CAP ON NEUTRAL GROUND: Elliot Levey and Amber James in Snowflake Pic: Manuel Harlan

THERE was a danger that the restaging of Mike Bartlett’s Snowflake could suffer from a sense of outdated despondency, focusing as it does on the familial tensions resulting from the EU referendum.

But, a year on from its initial outing at Oxford’s Old Fire Station, its healing power remains undiminished and it finds new resonance as the toxic dust of the latest vote begins to settle.

Its first half is wholly devoted to the twitchy self-loathing of the lonely forty-something Andy (Elliot Levey), who has evidently not recovered from losing his wife to cancer and has resorted to blaming the “creeping collapse of human dignity” for the estrangement of his daughter Maya (Ellen Robertson).

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
three
Culture / 15 April 2025
15 April 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
alterations
Theatre Review / 3 March 2025
3 March 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
Reykjavik
Interview / 5 November 2024
5 November 2024
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to playwright Richard Bean about his new play Reykjavik that depicts the exploitation of the Hull-based “far-fleet” trawlermen
theatre review
Theatre Review / 5 May 2023
5 May 2023
MAYER WAKEFIELD finds himself caught in the crossfire during a riveting piece of activist theatre
Similar stories
duo
Culture / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
alterations
Theatre Review / 3 March 2025
3 March 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
lonely London
Theatre Review / 20 January 2025
20 January 2025
MARY CONWAY applauds a brilliant theatrical adaptation of Sam Selvon’s classic 1950s novel of oppression, betrayal and resilience
piano
Theatre review / 22 April 2024
22 April 2024
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play that often leaves the audience with too little to hold on to as the main thrust of the story