The Snowstorm

The Snowstorm begins with an intense concert. Sitting at a piano in the darkened theater, Eric Nordin looks calm and serene, but that belies the torrent of sound he's producing. As the final, furious notes die in the air, the actors marvel and applaud. "Why so many notes?" asks one. "Why in such a hurry?"

Maybe because The Snowstorm tears through 18 piano solos by Sergei Rachmaninoff in just under 2½ hours. For those unfamiliar with the Russian composer, his music is both beautiful and relentless, and The Snowstorm—part of this year's Fertile Ground festival—might leave you out of breath. But with such an impassioned blend of live music, dance and theater, that's hardly a bad thing.

An original work by local composer Nordin and director-choreographer Jessica Wallenfels, The Snowstorm takes Rachmaninoff compositions and pairs them with abstract choreography—sweeping arm movements, rigid shoulder shrugs. Set in Russia in 1910, the story follows a grieving father, Dmitri (Chris Harder), his imaginative son Pavel (young actor Elisha Henig), and a woman named Anna (Jamie Rea) who is painfully haunted by her past. Often, the play slips into imagination or memory, with nonlinear moments—which feature dueling animals, arms deals and ghosts—slowly revealing how the three characters are connected. 

The eight performers are excellent—most notably Matthew Kerrigan, who plays both a sad specter and an over-the-top gypsy entertainer—and they're at their best during the show's more physically dynamic moments. A scene called "Ice Dancing" is straight out of a rom-com, in the very best way: As Dmitri and Anna slip and slide across a frozen lake, he shuffles awkwardly and she moves with graceful balance. Even though it's obvious how the scene will progress, it's still utterly charming—and, accompanied by one of Rachmaninoff's more cheerful tunes, one of the first bits of fun in an otherwise dark and wistful evening.

That's not to say the show is without fault. Some of Pavel's scenes drag, as his imaginary animal friends chase each other repetitively. And the ending ties things into a neat bow when a messier conclusion might have been more satisfying. For the most part, though, The Snowstorm finds a wonderful harmony between story, sound and movement. As Anna tells Pavel, "If you allow yourself to fall in, grand adventures await."

SEE IT: The Snowstorm is at CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 220-2646. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 pm Sundays through Feb. 7. $15-$25.

WWeek 2015