SNOWFLAKE
10 Dec 2019 – 25 Jan 2020
‘Because Christmas. Well… That’s when they say people come home.’
Andy’s 43. He loves nostalgic TV and pints down the pub. His daughter Maya is 21. She left home three years ago and hasn’t spoken to him since. This Christmas, Andy knows she’s coming back – Maya knows she’s not.
Snowflake is an epic story about generational conflict, fathers and daughters, and whether we’re living in the best or worst of times…
The critically-acclaimed festive hit by Olivier Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated Mike Bartlett (King Charles III, Doctor Foster), directed by Olivier Award-winner Clare Lizzimore (Bull), makes its London debut at Kiln Theatre.
★★★★★
‘Warm and funny.’
The Times
★★★★
‘After three years of bruising politics, it seems almost super-human that playwright Mike Bartlett can write a play of such heart about what the whole mess has done to us.’
Evening Standard
★★★★
‘The play is a legit wonder; and its debates will rumble on’
The Telegraph
★★★★
‘A clear-eyed response to the prevailing mood of the country’
Daily Express
★★★★
‘Captures so much of what the country is feeling right now and, distils it to its purest form’
Theatre Weekly
★★★★★
‘Simultaneously festive, caustic, refreshingly woke, authentically heartwarming and tremendous fun’
WhatsOnStage
★★★★
‘A provocative and tender vision of divided Britain that suggests there is no way forward if we don’t try to understand each other’
Time Out
★★★★
‘A masterfully written generational clash lies at the heart of this timely story rich in insight, poignancy and optimism’
The Guardian
★★★★
‘Mike Bartlett’s play crackles with timely, utterly believable dialogue’
The Stage
cast
Amber James
Natalie
Amber James plays Natalie. Her theatre credits include Vassa (Almeida Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (ETT), Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus and Dido, Queen of Carthage (RSC), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe & International tour), Much Ado About Nothing (Queen’s Theatre) and The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre). For television, her work includes Doc Martin and Ransom.
Elliot Levey
Andy
Elliot Levey plays Andy. His theatre work includes Three Sisters (Almeida Theatre), Snowflake (Old Fire Station, Oxford), Mary Stuart (Duke of York’s Theatre), Saint Joan, Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse), The Mighty Walzer (Royal Exchange Manchester), The Ruling Class (Trafalgar Studios), Canvas (Chichester Festival Theatre), and for the National Theatre – Danton’s Death, The Habit of Art, All’s Well That End’s Well, England People Very Nice, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 and His Dark Materials. For television, his work includes Martin’s Close, Anne, State of the Union, Peaky Blinders, Press, Watergate, Black Earth Rising, Silent Witness, Man Down, The Child in Time, Ripper Street, Da Vinci’s Demons and Parade’s End; and for film, Murder on the Orient Express, Denial, Fallen, The Master of York, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Lady in the Van, Philomena, The Wall and The Queen.
Ellen Robertson
Maya
Ellen Robertson plays Maya. Her theatre work includes Snowflake (Old Fire Station, Oxford). Robertson and her comedy partner, Charly Clive, have recently completed the second sold-out run of their debut show Britney at the Battersea Arts Centre – the production first played at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Soho Theatre and The VAULT Festival. Together they are developing a scripted television project with Pure producers Drama Republic. As a writer, her work includes Nesting (The Watermill Theatre), an episode of the web series Post Coital (which she also starred in) and is currently working on a new play, Any Willing Provider. For television, as an actor, her work includes The Pale Horse and In My Skin.
creative team
Mike Bartlett
Playwright
Mike Bartlett is a multi-award-winning stage and screen writer. He has won three Olivier Awards for his plays Cock (Royal Court Theatre – Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre), King Charles III (Almeida Theatre/Wyndham’s Theatre – Best New Play; also winner of Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play), Bull (Young Vic – Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre). He also won the UK Theatre Award for Best New Play for Love, Love, Love, which transferred to the Royal Court Theatre. Other plays include Albion, Game (Almeida Theatre), Wild (Hampstead Theatre), 13, Earthquakes In London (National Theatre) and many others. He has previously been Writer-in-Residence at the Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre and Paines Plough. His television work has also won national acclaim, including hit BBC One series Doctor Foster, which won BAFTA, National Television, Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. Other TV credits include Press (BBC), Trauma, The Town (ITV – BAFTA nominated) and the TV adaptation of King Charles III (BBC).
Clare Lizzimore
Director
Clare Lizzimore is an award-winning writer and director. Snowflake is her second collaboration with playwright Mike Bartlett, following Bull (Young Vic, Sheffield Theatres & 59E59 New York), which won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in An Affiliate Theatre. She has also won a Channel 4 Theatre Directors Award (Formally the RTYDS Award) and Arts Foundation Theatre Directing Fellowship; and she was previously resident director at Citizens Theatre, Glasgow and staff director at the National Theatre. Her other directing credits include One Day When We Were Young (Paines Plough/Sheffield Theatres/Shoreditch Town Hall), Lay Down Your Cross, On The Rocks (Hampstead Theatre), Pieces of Vincent (Arcola Theatre), Faces In The Crowd, The Mother (Royal Court Theatre), Fear and Misery, War and Peace (Royal Court Theatre/Latitude), The Most Humane Way To Kill a Lobster (Theatre503), and Tom Fool (Glasgow Citizens/Bush).
Jeremy Herbert
Designer
Jessica Hung Han Yun
Lighting Designer
Elena Peña
Sound Designer
Amy Ball
Additional Casting
Kaleya Baxe
Assistant Director
Stage Management Team
Laura Flowers
Company Stage Manager
Lorna Earl
Deputy Stage Manager
Louise Quartermain
Assistant Stage Manager
Originally produced at the Old Fire Station, Oxford.