By Dylan Carter | 8 July 2024

★★★★

Colourful, richly textured, and full of life, Snacey! follows a snake gearing up for her very first birthday party at nine years old who then comes to discover she has no friends to invite.

I am certainly not the intended audience for this Fringe KidsFest play, being that I am above the age of ten. However, I found just as much joy in the show as the kids oohing and aahing in the rows ahead of me. The piece is ambitious -- I’ve seen solo performances fail to hold the attention of adults, let alone seven-year-olds. However, Priscila Gonzalez’s performance across six different characters is hugely alive, specific, and above all, loads of fun as she takes on the textures of her colourful felt and fur puppet co-stars. Beyond her skill as a performer, Gonzalez’s writing is well paced and deeply thoughtful. The show at once validates the big feelings of a child while at the same time impressing the value of apologizing without coming across as preaching or talking down to its audience. Snacey! tackles big ideas, asking whether anyone is inherently evil, or if it is possible to break generational cycles. These questions may just as easily have been found in a show written for an adult audience, but the play manages to keep from overly simplifying these concepts: no easy feat! On the whole, the show demonstrates a great trust for its young audience, something I witnessed pay off in droves as kids in the audience remained at their seats’ edge to cheer Snacey on. 

The overall design work, including the set design by Millie Cameron, sound design by Cynthia Cepeda and costume design by Olga Korolyuk is warm and unapologetically DIY. The feel of the show is reminiscent of a cut and paste art project one might find in a Kindergarten classroom. Claire West and Olga Korolyuk’s costume building and design is a standout in this respect, both bolstering the big personalities of each character while also allowing for detailed movement sequences as Snacey sheds her skin for the first time. Shaharah Gaznabbi’s puppet design work is equally fantastic, demonstrating a range of texture and personality. A particularly exceptional example is the stained-glass-style snake puppet representing Snacey’s mom who, supported by Vasilisa Filippova’s lighting design, gave me goosebumps each time she appeared. I did wonder if there may have been a bit more clarity with respect to how each different character appeared in terms of lighting design cues or when puppets appeared versus when they didn’t. Nevertheless, with the help of Gonzalez’s precision as a performer, I was able to differentiate eventually. The only real drawback visually was those assisting with the puppets -- had there been a bit more choreography rather than well-timed sneaking on and offstage, they may have been blended with the show more smoothly. 

An equally playful and emotional romp straight off Sesame Street, you won’t want to miss this addition to KidsFest if you’ve got a kid in your life, or a childlike spirit.