Snow Angel is a 1999 play by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 David Lindsay-Abaire

David Lindsay-Abaire

David Lindsay-Abaire is an American playwright and lyricist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play Rabbit Hole, which also earned several Tony Award nominations.-Early life and education:...

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Synopsis

"When the quiet town of Deerpoint, Vermont is hit by the biggest blizzard in 107 years, a mysterious girl named Eva steps out of a snow bank and into the lives of 15 confused teenagers who are asked to help her in her search. What Eva's searching for -- and who she truly is -- becomes a mystery that baffles, divides, and energizes the teens of Deerpoint. Told through journal entries and interactions among the students over the course of a single snow day, Snow Angel is a funny and eerie tale of teen angst, discovery, and the power of believing."

The play begins with all of the teenagers waiting by their radios, listening to the school closings. Just as they begin to celebrate when they hear their school is closed, their teacher has a special announcement for them: they have a journal assignment over the Snow Day. Frida Jenson, the outcast of the group, starts writing stories in her journal about mysterious encounters with a girl named Eva. After finding Frida's journal, the rest of the group begin writing about their meetings with Eva too, and it soon becomes a tangle of truth and lies.

At the end of the play, Frida refuses to accept Crank's claim that Eva drowned. She begins to say that she saved Eva at the last minute, although Crank immediately rejects the idea. But then the other members of the group agree with her, and each say they helped in their own way. "Snow Angel" is about Frida Jenson's transformation and acceptance into the group.

Frida Jenson

Frida is the moody and angry outcast in the group. Her parents are divorced and her mother works two jobs, causing Frida to end up alone most of the time. She also has a job working at the Pretzel Knot with Gus. After reading an article about a girl's disappearance in another blizzard many years ago, she creates the character of Eva in her journal. Upon hearing the rest of the group claiming they saw Eva too, Frida becomes infuriated and calls them all liars. But when Crank says he saw Eva drown, the rest of the group comes to Frida's aid and tells Crank that Eva survived. At the end of the play, Frida is accepted into the group over their mutual bond through Eva.

Jill

Jill is the nice girl and the voice of reason in the group. Her relationship with Benny is the romantic aspect of the play. Crank also has an unrequited crush on Jill, and tried to win her affection by saving her from the burning shed. He fails to do so, seeing as he set the shed on fire in the first place. During their 'meeting', Eva tells Jill she thinks Benny likes her and she should ask him to ice-skate. But if Eva isn't real, and Jill made the conversation up, that means that Jill is aware of Benny's feelings, and has accepted them. At the end of the play, things are looking good for Jill and Benny, and they plan to go ice-skating in the future.

Benny

Benny is a shy boy with many allergies. His crush on Jill is a large part of his personality. Despite his allergies, he is still able to smell Jill's hair, which "absorbs the aromas" from her mother's bakery (p. 11). Jill also seems to be the only person who remembers his name is Benny, not Lenny. During his 'meeting' with Eva, he is given advice on girls, and that he should be more confident around Jill. At the end of the play, he does seem more confident, and Benny and Jill plan to go ice-skating (Crank is left out of the picture).

Crank

Crank is the juvenile delinquent. He is known as the local kleptomaniac and pyromaniac. He even goes to such lengths as to ignite a shed, trapping Jill, so he could save her and become the ostensible hero. Crank's 'encounter' with Eva is very different from the rest. Eva's personality is similar to that of Crank's normal personality; she is tough and threatening. At the end of the play, the rest of the teens help Frida against Crank's accusations, and he leaves defeated.

Clifford

Clifford is a dimwitted but kindhearted friend of Dan's. Clifford is a comic relief character in the play, and mainly states what he thinks is 'awesome', for example, "Poetry is awesome" (p. 14), or "Juke Boxes are awesome" (p. 17). Clifford claims to have met Eva, and has helped her look for Whitestone. To Eva's disappointment, they were unsuccessful. His journal entry is completely random, because he believes their teacher will just skim the journals rather than read them.

Dan

Dan is a popular boy, but is sometimes sad. He's very sensitive when talking about his mother, and when Arlo mentioned his mother, he "beat the hell" out of him (p. 10). The reason Dan hates discussing his mother is because of his mother's serious illness, most likely cancer. Otherwise, Dan is an easygoing guy, and is best friends with Clifford. Dan has never met Eva. On page 54, after Frida finishes her story of Eva's departure into the woods, Dan says, "But it was okay that she was gone because she was going home and that's where she wanted to be." This line refers to Dan coming to terms with his mother's seemingly terminal illness.

Helen Spitzer

Helen is the weird girl in the group, aided by her glass eye. Around other people, she's usually tough, and once throws snowballs at Frida. At other times she seems rather strange, and to scare people that tease her she pops out her eye and says, "I'm lookin' at you! This is my evil eye! I curse your family and all of its descendants!" (p. 32). At the very end of the play, she makes up with Frida and it seems like they are going to become friends. During her 'encounter' with Eva, Helen says that when she was six, her brother shot her with a BB gun, and she always brings it up when they get into a fight. That's usually what quiets him down, possibly implying that this incident led to her need for a glass eye.

Tina-Louise

Tina-Louise is the popular girl, proud of just earning her driver's license. Tina-Louise is very outgoing, and loves to talk about herself and take people for a ride now that she has a license. Her 'meeting' with Eva consisted mainly of Eva flattering her, which was her way of bragging through her journal entry. Tina-Louise is a terrible driver, and when she takes some of the group to the local pretzel store, her passengers spent most of the ride screaming. At the end of the play she offers everyone a ride home, and the rest of the group immediately decline.

Betty and Fran

Betty and Fran are twins that go everywhere together and often synchronize their speech, despite being fraternal twins. According to them, their mother makes them dress alike because of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They both have 'meetings' with Eva, where Eva apparently told Betty she liked her hair and went bowling with Fran.

Gus

Gus is the awkward and sometimes obnoxious member of the group. He works as the cashier at 'The Pretzel Knot', the common meeting place for the teens, with Frida. Since everyone comes and goes and he has to stay and work, he feels he is "always left alone" (p. 29). According to Gus, during his 'meeting' with Eva, she compliments his smile and plans a date with him on Thursday. Seeing as the teenagers portray Eva as an ideal friend, this hints that Gus doesn't do well with girls.

Doofus

Doofus is the class clown, and probably nicknamed himself because of that position. Doofus is always goofy, and another comic relief character in the play. Some of the teens jokingly call him 'King Doofus'. His 'meeting' with Eva took place at a 711, where Eva was apparently cracking jokes that had Doofus howling with laughter.

Vincent

Vincent is the whiz kid in the group, who is very close with his pet chamelon Jorge, and even brings him outside with him during the Snow Day. Vincent is a part of the 'trio' in the group, consisting of himself, Arlo, and Ethel. He acts as a sort of authoritative figure in the trio, and proposes they become heroes by 'saving' Eva. But when the three of them search the computer for information on Eva, they discover the story of the girl's disappearance in 1891. Vincent also points out a comment Frida made to the librarian that was made a week before the blizzard hit, and before Eva's 'appearance'. During their 'meeting', Eva apparently compared herself to Jorge: a chameleon. "Many things to many people" (p. 35)

Arlo

Arlo is the wimpy kid in the group, and part of the trio made up of himself, Vincent, and Ethel. Arlo is often picked on at school, at least once by Dan, and usually doesn't speak his mind. He reads his real opinions from his journal entry, however. For instance, when Crank is accused of stealing a Michael Bolton CD, he writes, "I would never admit it, but I kind of like Michael Bolton" (p. 26). Arlo helps uncover Frida's secret on the computer with Vincent and Ethel, and at the end of the play reveals it to the rest of the group (after claiming he wouldn't usually say something like that.) It seems that toward the end, Arlo is less of a wimp then he was at the beginning of the play, as he revealed the truth to the group. Arlo never mentions an encounter with Eva.

Ethel

Ethel is the hyperactive and chatty girl in the group, and part of the trio made up of herself, Arlo, and Vincent. Almost all of her lines in the play are hyphenated, implying that they are spoken very quickly, almost like one word. When she doesn't take her hyperactivity pill, Ethel seems to become so hyper she starts acting out of her mind. For example, after Vincent says he believes Eva is a runaway, she states she thinks "Eva is an ever-elusive-leprechan" (p. 37). Ethel doesn't mention a meeting with Eva.

Eva

Eva is the 'Snow Angel'. Eva's identity is the main mystery solved by Vincent, Arlo, and Ethel at the end of the play. Frida read an article about Eva Davidson's disappearance and stole the story to put in her journal for her assignment. Frida then created a friend that she never had before, and therefore feels betrayed when the rest of the teenagers steal the story too. Eva Davidson had gone into the woods in the middle of a blizzard to find her little sister, Catherine, unaware that her sister was playing in the family attic. (Catherine has many spellings in the play, probably because they are used in different people's journal entries, who changed the spelling accidentally.) The members of the group seem to mature and learn to accept their hardships through Frida's imaginary creation.

Trivia

• In the play, there is a trio of friends consisting of Ethel, Vincent, and Arlo. They act as the detectives in the play, since they are the ones who discover Frida's secret. If the first letters of their names are put together, they spell out "EVA".

• David Lindsay-Abaire is also writing Shrek on Broadway and jackass' 1-3