While there’s nothing inherently terrifying about sleeping bags and bobble hats – unless the thought of a camping holiday gives you heart palpitations – you can sense the horror, and also some fun, in these production images of We Know Now Snowmen Exist. Take a look, then book your tickets!
Written by Michael Spencer, We Know Now Snowmen Exist runs from 19 to 23 March at The Space. The chilly thriller is inspired by the unsolved mystery of the Dyatlov Pass Incident of 1959, in which nine ski-hikers died in the Ural Mountains in still-unexplained circumstances. Six of the party died from hypothermia, having fled their tent in differing states of undress. Three received injuries deemed unlikely to have been delivered by a human. Their bodies were found over the space of four months; some up trees, some missing parts of their face…
Set in the modern day, a group of women set out on a charity hike… and never return. What really awaits the girls outside the relative safety of their tent – and more importantly, do they really know who’s inside it? Why was the tent cut open? Why were the bodies partially dressed in each other’s’ clothing? And what was meant by the group’s chilling final journal entry; ‘We know now that snowmen exist’.
We Know Now Snowmen Exist was a smash hit at the Carlisle Fringe Festival in 2018, winning the Creative Spark Commission for New Theatre in a sold out five-star run. It is now a finalist for the prestigious Cumbria Culture Awards Live Production of the Year.
The all-female cast of We Know Now Snowmen Exist includes Rowan Kikke (Lisa), Rebekah Holly Neilson (Rachael), Vanessa Sedgwick (Chloe), Chloe Sturrock (Hayley), and Naomi Webster (Zoe). In keeping with the Cumbrian tradition of Highly Suspect, all the actors are either Cumbrian-born or trained in England’s northernmost county.
The ski-hikers’ tent, as it was found
Director Lexie Ward won the NODA Best Director Award in 2015 for her production of Tom, Dick and Harry. She was also Assistant Director for Sense and Sensibility at Theatre by the Lake in 2018.
Writer Michael Spencer has had pieces performed at Southwark Playhouse and The Other Palace, as well as writing for radio and having his play Unholy Congregation toured.
Production gallery:
