Blizzard – Soho Theatre, London

Writer: Emily Woof

Director: Hamish McColl

Wacky, witty and heart-warming, Soho Theatre’s Blizzard is a wonderfully bizarre hour-long foray into how we understand the world.

Surreal and in the true form of eccentric, writer and performer Emily Woof plunges Soho Theatre mid-conversation into a story of a woman preparing to deliver a lecture. She’s standing in for her neuroscientist husband, pet name ‘Dotty’, who can’t make it to Switzerland to give a keynote speech on his life’s work about neuropathic ‘avalanches’ in the brain. But as the lecture builds up, her very grasp on life seems to crumble with it.

Blizzard addresses surreal philosophical notes of the metaphysical realm and of the real world with a casual captivating charm. There’s power in the simplicity of the dreamlike ramblings with witty delivery and profound meanings sprinkled in. An impressive feat, even if it doesn’t work 100 per cent of the time.

At times there is no guessing where the plot is going next: often this works, but occasionally it loses the room. We see the world through the eyes of our delightfully naïve protagonist, her worries about her scientifically forensic husband, her joy in nature, and her love of dancing. Throughout the characters’ tangents and digressions, Woof holds a moderated, muted energy that is utterly compelling.

The writing frequently surprises with its simple humour, and the pacing is broken up nicely with short physical interludes (the work of movement director Siân Williams). At its core Woof’s protagonist and her fascination with the small things remind the audience of the simplicity of human happiness.

Hamish McColl’s direction is neat and tight, adding nicely to a feeling of crescendo that holds a good pace and the audience’s rapt attention. Woof particularly shines as the wacky Swiss performance artist Anita, who stands on a stool and impersonates animals and objects for hours on end, a performance for which she refuses to give reasoning. She’s the only other character that is embodied on stage (‘Dotty’ and their son exist mostly on the other end of the phone or through reported speech). The existential crisis to which the performance pushes our protagonist gives us the closest to pure philosophical theory (not to mention how she physically travels up the Swiss mountains to Friedrich Nietzsche’s house).

Woof weaves a pattern of wool across the stage as the protagonist traverses through a mental and physical avalanche, and in its unique divergent style the production attempts to articulate the very experience of being. Perhaps, in a way, it’s neuroscience for the unscientific. The ending packs an emotional punch that rounds the whole production off with something beautiful for the audience to leave with.

Blizzard is a production that manages to be insightful, surreal and funny at once, and it’s one worth watching.

Runs until 25 May 2024