They say there’s no business like show business, but last night in Cardiff the cry was there’s no business like snow business. As the curtain rose on SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW at the New Theatre, it quickly became clear that this wasn’t your typical night at the theatre. This is part circus, part dreamscape, and part snowstorm – a show that feels like stepping inside the imagination of a mischievous clown and discovering it’s somehow also your own.
From the moment the first figure drifted across the stage in that familiar, floppy yellow jumpsuit, the audience was spellbound. There’s no dialogue, no plot in the traditional sense, and yet the show communicates perfectly through expression, music, and atmosphere. It’s theatre stripped of words but overflowing with feeling. You don’t need to understand what’s being saidm you feel it instead.
SLAVA POLUNIN, the Russian clown and creator of this long-running global phenomenon, built this show to celebrate joy and human connection. It’s a production that’s been enchanting audiences for decades, and its return to Cardiff couldn’t be more welcome. At a time when the world feels loud and cluttered, SnowShow offers something refreshingly simple: the power of laughter, wonder, and shared experience.
Each vignette unfolds like a series of dreams, sometimes gentle and poetic, sometimes chaotic and surreal. The clowns, with their oversized shoes and expressive faces, lead us through moments of loneliness, friendship, curiosity, and play. One minute they’re gliding through foggy mist under soft light; the next, they’re whipping the audience into a blizzard of paper snow that leaves everyone gasping and laughing.
And that’s part of the magic: the audience isn’t just watching this show, they’re part of it. A little boy in the front row found himself gently teased by a clown offering him a feather. Whole rows of adults ducked and squealed as giant coloured balls bounced over their heads. Even the most reserved faces couldn’t help but break into smiles. By the finale, when the theatre is transformed into a storm of swirling white confetti, you could feel the entire room exhale, a collective surrender to pure delight.
The son of Slava is Vanya Polunin who has been on stage performing since he was seven years old. As Vanya told us, it’s a show filled with emotions that everybody has. It’s about love, loss, fear and hope. And fear about sums up the word we had when we went along to chat to Vanya along with two of the more, shall we say, interactive characters from the show……
The production’s visual design is breathtaking in its simplicity. The stage looks like a forgotten world, part winter landscape, part abandoned circus tent. Lighting and music do much of the emotional heavy lifting, shifting the mood from whimsy to melancholy to exhilaration. The music choices are especially evocative: haunting Italian ballads, snippets of classical melodies, and playful sound effects that make the performance feel timeless, existing outside of any one culture or language.
What’s truly remarkable is how Slava’s Snow Show manages to appeal across generations. Around me, children sat with wide eyes, giggling at every tumble and pratfall. Adults, meanwhile, found themselves pulled into a deeper current, a nostalgia for the innocence of childhood, that sense of wonder we too often lose. It’s as though the show invites you to let go of logic and just be, even if only for an hour and a half.
There are moments of quiet melancholy too, and that’s what keeps the show from ever becoming cloying. The loneliness of the central clown, wandering through endless snow, feels almost existential. But it’s never heavy-handed. In true clowning tradition, sadness and laughter live side by side, and that emotional honesty gives the spectacle real weight. You laugh, but you also feel a little ache in your chest, the mark of great theatre, no matter how simple the setup.
The Cardiff audience gave the company a rapturous standing ovation, and it was well-deserved. It’s easy to see why Slava’s Snow Show has toured the world for more than 30 years and collected countless awards along the way. It’s a reminder that theatre doesn’t need special effects or complex dialogue to be moving. Sometimes all it takes is a clown, a feather, and a roomful of people willing to believe in magic again.
Leaving the theatre, you could hear people still laughing, brushing the last bits of ‘snow’ from their coats, eyes shining as if they’d just woken from a shared dream. It’s hard to describe a show like this without giving away its surprises, but perhaps that’s the point. Slava’s Snow Show isn’t something you explain – it’s something you feel. And in Cardiff last night, everyone felt it.
They say there’s no business like show business. But for one night at the New Theatre, snow business stole the show, and it was glorious.
SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW is at the New Theatre in Cardiff through to Saturday 18th October. Shows are at 7pm on Thursday and Saturday. 2:30pm on Thursday and Saturday with a 5pm and 8:30pm on Friday. For more details and tickets, go HERE.
You can read our show preview and interview with the creator, Slava Polunin – HERE.
