Like nothing you've seen on the Sunderland Empire stage before - what we thought of Slava's SnowShow

Slava’s SnowShow has made its Sunderland debut - and it’s like nothing you’ve seen on the Empire stage before.

And once you’ve taken your seat for this wacky show devised by performance artist Slava Polunin, regarded as the world’s greatest clown, it’s easy to see why its unique brand of fantastical farce has made it so popular worldwide in its 30 years of touring.

There’s no dialogue in the SnowShow, instead we rely on the madcap movements of the troupe of clowns who deliver a masterclass in physical comedy.

The spectacle’s lack of language removes any translation barriers as we watch the clowns act out wondrous scenes, from simple sequences as they play with strings and bubbles, eliciting peals of laughter with just the raise of an eyebrow or shrug of a shoulder, to huge scenes that involve the whole audience.

The clowns constantly break the fourth wall, taking the audience to another dimension of delightful tomfoolery where even the biggest of cynics can’t help but feel like a child again as they squirt you with water and give you a wink behind their fat red noses.

Clowning it may be, but the show also has an avant-garde poetic quality to it, opening a door to another world which you can’t help but walk through with them.

Slower scenes are beautifully done, such as a scene with a hat stand and coat, the clown’s arm in the coat making it come to life as though it was another person, sharing a special moment.

The show flits from pathos to pure joy.

At one point a giant cobweb is slung across the stalls, a sea of outstretched arms in the audience turning it into a mass white wave.

Another time, dozens of giant balls bounce through the crowd turning the Empire into a theatrical playground, kids and adults shrieking in glee.

The piece-de-resistance, however, is the spectacular titular SnowShow.

Tens of thousands of pieces of white ticker tape whip through the air blanketing the audience as the main clown character turns into a spectacular whirling dervish on stage. The crowd went wild.

It was pure chaos, in the best way, as kids (and adults) screamed with unadulterated joy, balling up the ticker tape and throwing it at each other like feather weight snowballs.

A warning for those in the front seats: that ticker tape comes thick and fast, your cheeks almost flapping in the wind.

Sunderland was well and truly swept up by Slava’s barnstorming SnowShow - I just wouldn’t want to be the staff member who has to sweep it up afterwards.

Slava’s SnowShow will be blowing Empire audiences away, quite literally, until Saturday, December 7.