By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Once children in Korea used to frolic in the snow through most of winter. But now as the climate is getting warmer, snow is becoming increasingly rare, with only a few days of snow falling in Seoul each year.
The thought of snow still delights children eager to play the endless games it makes possible, while adults love the romantic and enchanting atmosphere it evokes.
A magical show by Slava Polunin, a Russian clown, creator of ``Asisyai-revue,'' ``Snowshow'' and ``Diabolo,'' will allow audiences to feel once again, the innocence of being a child this spring.
Korea will see the show's fifth opening this month. According to Yedang Entertainment, the show's organizer in Korea, it has drawn about 3 million viewers in more than 100 countries around the world. More than 60,000 people saw the show in Korea alone in the previous performances.
The show begins with four clowns walking on the snow against a gray and dark backdrop. The show features the spectacular last scene, in which teardrops from a clown's eyes wet a love letter and turn into snowflakes, which becomes a snowstorm that blows onto the audience.
No boundary is felt between the audience and the performers. ``Snow Show'' breaks through the invisible wall at the front of the stage that separates the audience from the performers. The audience is engaged in a snowball fight with the actors, bouncing giant balloons around the theater with other audience members, and is covered by a giant cobweb, which gives a whole new dimension to the audience's participation.
The show is non-verbal and changes with each performance. Depending on who the audience is and what they want, tens of thousands of stories will unfold on stage.
Slava's show is totally different from what you have seen before ― a world of wonder combining hilarity and poignancy with stunning spectacle and breathtaking images; an unmistakably unique comedy masterpiece.
The performers use water, cobwebs, bubbles and dry ice with dazzling effect, making a bed become a boat, enveloping the audience with a web of cotton, and one tiny piece of paper begins a blinding, heart-stopping snowstorm that engulfs an awestruck audience in a blizzard of sparkling snowflakes.
The show will hit Seoul at KEPCO Art Center from April 16-20 and Universal Arts Center from May 8-11, and goes to Seongnam from April 23-27 and Oulim Nuri Art Complex in Gyeonggi Province from May 1-5.