Customer Reviews

The Snow Palace

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There is an interesting story behind "The Snow Palace," the play by Pam Gems; the playwright herself tells this story in an introduction to the book version of the play. "The Snow Palace" is about Stanislawa Przybyszewska, a Polish woman playwright who was working in the 1920s. She wrote a 600-page play about the French Revolution. Gems herself edited the play down to a manageable length, and it was produced in 1985. But Stanislawa herself continued to haunt Gems, and the result is this intriguing play.

The opening pages of the book note that the play was first performed in early 1998, toured the UK for 6 weeks, and had its London premiere in December 1998. The play takes place in Stanislawa's wretched, cold little wooden hut, where she is working on her epic play. As she works on the play, she is visited by both her family members and by figures from the Fench Revolutionary era.

The themes of this play include gender roles, the place of the artist in society, coming to terms with a problematic family background, and the human Utopian impulse. Stanislawa's fascination with the French Revolution is explored in particular. Ultimately I think the audience is left to ponder whether Stanislawa is insane, or is merely an unappreciated eccentric genius. Overall, "The Snow Palace" is a biting, often painful look at female intellectualism and female artistic creativity in a cold (literally) world that doesn't seem to understand.