Gary Henderson’s An Unseasonable Fall of Snow has been circling through Australasian theatre since it was first commissioned for the NZ International Festival of the Arts in 1998. As such, it’s both difficult to review without spoiling for fresh audiences, and without treading on familiar ground.

An Unseasonable Fall of Snow begins with Arthur and Liam arriving bewildered in an eerily blank room. Arthur, looking to the world like a police officer or a lawyer in a well-cut blue suit and tidy moustache, begins interrogating the young Liam as to the nature of ‘last night’. Liam’s confusion and frustration, and Arthur’s predatory circling, establish a premise of investigation and slow piecing-together of the Liam’s night out in Wellington. It’s the pursuit of the truth that drives the narrative forward – a truth that is increasingly confrontational and difficult as the night goes on.

As a two-person play, An Unseasonable Fall of Snow relies on robust performances, and our Arthur (Tyler Brailey) and Liam (Samuel James) provide a fine example of tight back-and-forth dialogue and evolving power plays. Both are as tightly wound as clock springs: James’s nervous energy and bewilderment locks him in his seat, hunched over, defensive, while Brailey shifts back and forth across the stage, now taunting, now sympathetic.

Brailey and James sustain the tension and energy throughout the show, delivering with clarity and enthusiasm. Some aspects are perhaps too tight – it feels odd to criticise enunciation, but when “you knows” are too staccato (“y’knows” would feel more fitting of a university-age young adult), they draw attention to the script rather than the performances which are otherwise captivating.

It’s a brisk 45-minute show, suited to touring for high school periods or lunch breaks, and feels especially targeted at male school leavers with its themes of mental health, isolation, and the measures of male worth. Yet the conversation it promotes is one of more general mental health, of reaching out to associates and friends who may need to discuss their wellbeing.

The issue I have is that the play is both prescient and strangely out of date. It’s not the brief and quaint references to being ‘on the net’, or the odd lack of smartphones and other fixtures of twenty-first century life. While the primary subject of the play – revealed around the half-hour mark – is unfortunately as relevant as ever, the way of navigating it feels peculiarly out of date.

If An Unseasonable Fall of Snow is to be part of youth-targeted theatre circuit, as it should, then what it desperately needs is an update to reflect contemporary issues that confront today’s young people and affect their mental health (e.g. cyberbullying, social media expectations, gender identities), and how these might complicate this narrative, or at the least a few nods to the ways in which young people connect today. Henderson’s text may have found its audience in 1998 but it will lose it if the text is still presented as contemporary.

After the cast bow, artistic director for Simple Truth, Taylor Griffin, came out to explain the intention of their tour and offer some mental health contact numbers for the audience. It’s a simple gesture but increasingly necessary today. If a short, sharp show about mental wellbeing might inspire a conversation with a loved one, then it deserves to be celebrated. 

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