I saw A Killing Snow at Vertigo on opening night, and I have not stopped thinking about it. Mostly, I have been thinking about Bernardo Pacheco. He plays a pig farmer named Jack, and he might be the funniest person I have seen on a Calgary stage in years.
The play is written by Canadian playwright Paul Ciufo and directed by Tara Beagan. Five people get stuck in a farmhouse in Huron County during a blizzard. People start turning up dead. Latin phrases start appearing on a whiteboard. And the people left alive have to decide whether to walk out into the whiteout and probably freeze to death or stay inside with whoever is responsible.
Bernardo Pacheco as Jack
Jack is a pig farmer and a catalog model from rural Ontario. He is blunt and offensive, and finds most things at least a little bit funny. The play dips into classical philosophy and literature with Plato among the references. Every time it does, Jack is right there to bring things back down to earth, and the audience loves him for it. There is a young Jim Carrey quality to Pacheco in this role.
Andrew Moodie as Gerald
Gerald owns the farmhouse that the five of them are trapped in. He is a former high school teacher whose academic ambitions never quite worked out. There is a rigidity to him, a need for order that has only grown as his life has gotten smaller and lonelier.
As the play goes on, Gerald finds himself at the centre of the whole story. The people stuck in that house with him are not there by accident. His past is the reason for all of it. Moodie carries that weight with a warmth and weariness that makes you believe every bit of it.
Gerald and Jack Together
Gerald and Jack are opposites in almost every way. They do not get along for most of the night. But something genuine develops between them as the evening gets darker and the scenes they share were the highlight of the show for me.
One is an older man who never became who he thought he would be. The other is a young guy who never had those kinds of ambitions to begin with. Watching them find some common ground by the end of a very bad night felt real. It did not feel like something the play was forcing. It just happened naturally, and that is hard to pull off.
The Rest of the Cast
Katherine Fadum plays Libby, a free spirit with a psychic gift she has not always used honestly. When haunting visions start piecing together the events of that night, it is hard to know how much to trust her.
Nimet Kanji plays a professor who may have stolen Gerald’s thesis years ago. Linda Kee is Callie, a master’s student who gives very little away.
Add Jack and Gerald to the mix, and you have five people in a farmhouse, five possible killers and no safe bet.
Ticket Information
A Killing Snow runs until April 12. Evening shows are at 7:30 PM Tuesday through Saturday, with matinees on weekends. I had no idea who the killer was at intermission, and that alone is worth the ticket. This is a whodunit you do not want to miss. Book through Vertigo’s box office or website.
