‘Snow Maiden’ a Heartfelt History Fable

Although not an overtly Christmas-themed play, the second coming of Glorious Repertory Company’s original work “The Snow Maiden” taps into the holiday spirit more eloquently and effectively than many a “Christmas Carol” revival.

No, it’s not about shopping and eating too much. But it does deal with human connections that endure despite the inevitable changes and separations wrought by the passage of time--precisely the ties we celebrate in our Yuletide reunions and remembrances.

Particularly effective is the simplicity and emotional honesty with which director and co-creator Debbie Devine presents the story of Anna (Cheryl Crabtree), a Jewish girl in turn-of-the-century Russia who grows up to become a world-famous photographer.

The character is loosely based on Life magazine’s Margaret Bourke-White, whose photos are sometimes used here as illuminated backdrops. But the play at the Odyssey Theatre draws just as freely from imagination and from folk tales. This is emotional, not literal, history set amid a climate of fear--first of a repressive czarist regime that imprisons and murders Anna’s political activist parents (Erick Melton, Sharon McMahon), and later of the Nazi occupation forces in Paris, where Anna tries to conceal her Jewish origins.

The story’s central theme is symbolized in the Russian fable Anna’s father tells her about an infertile farmer and his wife who form a child out of snow to ease their loneliness. Although the Snow Child melts in the sun, it promises the grieving parents it will be with them always, in the tears in their eyes and the water that nourishes their crops.

Characteristically, the pragmatic Anna has little patience for her father’s romanticized fairy tales-- she’s much more interested in the camera her more entrepreneurial Uncle Moishe (Bruce Bierman) has brought her.

As a photographer, Anna becomes obsessed with capturing the essence of her subjects in a permanent record, but the direction of her life is in learning to appreciate that “some things are not meant for capture . . . but you can keep them with you in your heart.”

It’s a lesson related with agreeable charm thanks to thoughtful staging and polished performances featuring the cast in multiple roles. Nina Minton is a flamboyant presence as the Parisian chanteuse Claire Voyant (“Don’t laugh--I know what you’re thinking”), whose desperate effort to protect her baby provides Anna with a chance to absolve her own lingering guilt for hiding when her parents were arrested.

Although co-author Jay McAdams’ exaggerated, drawling, fictionalized portrayal of Life’s founding editor Henry Luce clashes with the otherwise subtle performances, he later shines in a brief scene about a young German soldier unable to bridge the gulf of politics as he courts McMahon’s French flower girl.

Alan Goodson makes a suitably smug but witless Nazi commander. Casey Mervine’s delicate gestures as a silent spirit enhance the story’s inner magic, as when he strokes Anna’s sprouting angel wings at a crucial turning point.

“The Snow Maiden’s” heartfelt message and visual inventiveness are sure to appeal to family audiences, provided children are mature enough to appreciate the play’s historical and interpersonal complexities (10 and over are the recommended ages).

* “The Snow Maiden,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A.; Monday through Friday, 8 p.m.; Starting Jan. 4: Wednesdays - Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Jan. 15. $12.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.