This is an
interesting and moving little one-act play, very suitable for children and yet beautiful for adults. It begins
in a shabby but well-kept peasant's cottage. The season is winter, and the ground is covered with snow. The children are outside playing, and they build a snowman. Their mother complains because it is right by the doorway, so no one can get in or out. The kids say it's so no one can come in and steal their mother. They go to bed happily, and while they sleep, the Snowman comes to life. He takes the mother outside; she sees a man (her long-absent husband) lying in the snow. She calls to him, and then she is at home again. He comes in and she is as if dead. He weeps and cries over her, but she doesn't respond. He looks and makes sure his children are all right; they're still sleeping happily. He goes back to her, and she awakens. She almost can't believe that he is there, and that, to stay. He tells her how he lost his way and fell into a snowdrift, but he heard her voice calling him, and it gave him the strength and direction he needed to get home. The children get up. There is the sound of snow and ice melting and falling from the rooftop -- the thaw has begun. The mother tells the children when they see their father that the Snow Man has come to life.
This is
mysterious and unusual play. It is easy to see as a movie, but I think it might be difficult to put on as a stage play without some very elaborate special effects; the scenes with the Snowman out in the winter landscape seem particularly difficult. It is a happy play ending with much joy for the children, yet there are deeper undercurrents about adult relationships and choices, and the relationship of dream, magic and reality, as well as the possibility of redemption and forgiveness.