Glacier
Old Fire Station, Oxford

TRUE to Oxford’s Old Fire Station tradition, Glacier is an original, alternative Christmas drama following the fortunes and friendships of three women over 15 years. 

All three have been drawn to a deserted lake to escape the pressures and expectations of Christmas Day and for a spot of wild swimming. The unlikely friendship gradually bonds the group around annual Christmas swims, intercut by national and international snippets of news identifying the year and contrasting with their domestic dramas.

With the passing of the years the women reveal ever more about themselves as the trust in their fellow swimmers develops. The wild swimming not only provides opportunities for imaginative and comic physical theatre but also acts as a metaphor for stripping away the masks that keep them afloat in the wider world.

Alison Spittle’s engaging script avoids sentimentality with a dry humour that runs through all three characters’ contrasting observations on the realities of their very different lives. 

Sophie Steer’s character Jools hides her problems behind a fanaticism for swimming. Her ebullient, girl-guide leader style approach to their meetings forms a telling contrast to Emma Lau’s protective facade of perfect, motherly home-life and Debra Baker’s more acerbic, humorous facade as the widower Dawn. Their need for each other’s friendship strengthens as time passes and their differences are put aside as they realise what they share.

Director Madelaine Moore keeps the energy flowing and turns the repetitive process of dressing and undressing into something more profound. Moments that could become over dramatic, like a dead Santa floating in the lake, are kept intentionally low key so that the drama is not imposed on them, but is about them.

Cory Shipp’s set of a bare jetty jutting out into a lake, provides an effective, restricted space for many of their personal, sometimes prickly interactions while the expanse of water spilling into the wings allows for a freedom of movement that symbolises the essence of their unusual relationship.

This is an unusual and very welcome change to the normal seasonal fare and yet still manages to hold onto the spirit of Christmas and offers more than just spectacle.

Runs until December 23. Box office: 01865 263990, oldfirestation.org.uk