A Hundred Words for Snow

Eddie Pattison captured the wonderment, mystique and vastness of the North Pole in A Hundred Words for Snow, now on stage at Theatre Works. The Australian premiere season – twice delayed due to COVID-19 lockdowns – is a compelling and heartfelt bildungsroman narrative that follows Rory grappling with the death of her father and her journey to the Arctic. 

The production is an adaptation of UK playwright Tatty Hennessy’s beautiful novel about an explorer seeking solace from her father’s untimely death. Rory – short for Aurora – is a typical high school student. She is a little inexperienced when it comes to boys, but when it comes to the North Pole, she is quite adept. Rory can describe the theorem of multiple North Poles. This niche knowledge all stems from her father, a geography teacher channelling Bear Grylls. So, when Rory mourns her father’s passing at the wake, she is consumed with memories of camping in the backyard and dressing up as a polar bear and conspires to take her father’s urn and make the intrepid expedition to the top of the world, so her father can fulfil his lifelong goal. 

The ensuing journey is very much a coming-of-age story. We see Rory navigate drinking, lose her virginity to an alluring Norwegian boy “who can drive”, and meet people who offer sage wisdom. The remark, “it’s a bit weird to be sitting at the Arctic Circle chatting to a fit boy with your dad’s ashes in your backpack”, brings home how important the journey is for Rory herself. 

Directed and produced by Gavin Roach, A Hundred Words for Snow is the perfect example of how one can achieve a lot with little. The set is stripped back, featuring a tent in the background. The sound by Connor Ross is terrific in conjuring the stark wind, cold and cracking of the Arctic and Eddie Pattison’s talents are on total display, never dropping the ball, and superbly expressing the gamut of emotion – happiness, devastation, determination, regret, exhilaration – throughout the 80-minute show. 

A Hundred Words for Snow is an entertaining and enriching production. Don’t miss it! 

A Hundred Words for Snow
Explosives Factory, Rear Laneway 67 Inkerman Street, St Kilda, 3182
On stage till Saturday 7 May 2022
theatreworks.org.au/program/a-hundred-words-for-snow

Images: Cameron Grant (Parenthesy)