Snow, the immersive performance installation from Clod Ensemble, is set for its first public showings in five years between 29th-31st March at the company’s studios in Greenwich Peninsula. Fusing unique staging with soaring choral music and poetic storytelling, the piece is a bracing demonstration of the cross-disciplinary approach which makes Clod Ensemble one of the UK’s leading performance companies.

Snow was originally commissioned by the Noh Reimagined festival for a 2018 performance at Kings Place, London.The creative process saw Clod Ensemble’s artistic directors invited to travel to Japan in order to create a new work in response to several works of Noh, the classical dance-drama style which dates back to the 14th Century. This immersion in an art form with more than 650 years of history led to the formulation of a piece with its own unique artistic language.

Much of Snow hangs on the unmistakable voice of Peggy Shaw, a legendary figure on the New York City art scene and a founding member of both the performance troupe Split Britches and the seminal avant-garde venue/collective WOW Café Theatre. Delivering text written by herself and Clod Ensemble’s co-artistic director Suzy Willson, Shaw moves back and forth between a lyrical spoken style and hushed, incantatory singing. Thrown into darkness under the snow, she attempts to unmask her own demons as her past, present and future collapse in the wake of an unnamed betrayal.

Accompanying Shaw’s words is a virtuoso composition from Clod Ensemble’s co-artistic director Paul Clark. Stormy choral arrangements do battle with jagged percussion; the playing of Yukihiro Isso, a Noh flautist who has collaborated with jazz legends like Cecil Taylor and Evan Parker and who comes from a family dynasty of Noh players dating back to the 16th Century, struggles to take flight amidst electronic warp and weft.

This is a chance to experience a unique sound and light piece in the intimate surroundings of Clod Ensemble Studios on Greenwich Peninsula.
There will be two showings of Snow each evening of the run.
Those with tickets to the 8.30pm showing on Thursday 30th March will be able to attend a Question & Answer session with Willson and Clark after the performance. A bar will be available until 10pm every evening.

Please note that Snow features considerable use of haze as well as periods of dimmed lighting. Be mindful of this when booking tickets and attending the performances - for instance, if you have any access needs or have issues around claustrophobia. Additional notes on the performance and accessibility information will be emailed to attendees upon purchasing tickets.

Due to the nature of Snow, we can only accommodate a limited number of wheelchair users for each performance. As such, please state when booking your ticket(s) that you will be attending as or with a wheelchair user, or get in touch with us directly to let us know this.

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Ticket: £9/£7 (concession)