Review: Once Upon A Snowflake for a quirky winter show

Yesterday evening Big Girl and Big Boy were checking their pockets for winter sprites. They were smiling and giggling, excited about their new game, which was clearly inspired by the show we’d been to see on Saturday.

We had been invited to review Paper Balloon’s Once Upon a Snowflake at Chelsea Theatre which introduced us to the mysterious winter sprites–tiny creatures that can jump into ears to tell stories.

Following a UK and Russian tour and a sold-out run at Pegasus Theatre, the Christmas production Once Upon A Snowflake is now playing at Chelsea Theatre, making it possible for families to break up a shopping trip on King’s Road with a theatre visit.

The show starts with two members of a winter sprites society teaching the audience about the tiny creatures that they explain are too small to see but can jump into anyone’s ears. The two winter sprites experts are on a mission to find a missing girl, who they think could have been affected by a winter sprite.

The story is told with the use of shadow puppetry and it also features original songs from Darren Clark (The Scarecrow’s Wedding) and plenty of audience interaction, which keeps the children entertained.

Towards the end, the actors requested the help of the audience to create a story that has never been heard before to help solve their mission, and this led to a lot of giggles. I was also impressed with how the actors then created a new story and songs on the spot with the direction from the audience.

Overall, I think the show is very quirky with its imaginative story and the way it is told, and I left feeling it was different from anything we’d seen before.

Once Upon a Snowflake is playing at Chelsea Theatre until 22 December and the show is recommended for children aged 3 and over. The running time is around 70 minutes

Tags: Chelsea Theatre, Children's theatre, Christmas 2017, Once Upon a Snowflake, Review