SNOW DAY BLIZZARD CONDITIONS PREVAIL WHEN `SLAVA SNOWSHOW' COMES TO TOWN.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

When he talks about the ``depth'' of snow, Slava Polunin is actually being metaphoric, although those who have seen his ``Slava's Snowshow'' may be forgiven if they imagine being piled up to the neck in the cool fluffy stuff.

The culmination of the ``Snowshow'' -- opening Thursday at UCLA's Royce Hall -- is a spectacular indoor blizzard that knocks the baggy-suited Polunin off his feet and blows torrents of ``snow'' into the audience. Polunin's snow never melts. In fact, it's allowed to accumulate in an auditorium over the course of an extended run, forcing new theatergoers to shove through it en route to their seats.

``I've been at dinner in a restaurant in Union Square and often seen piles of the snow under the tables,'' says David Foster, one of the show's producers. ``People come out covered in the stuff.''

A boxful of snow

``A friend of a friend of mine had seen the show in Edinburgh in 1996. She was so in love with it, she collected the paper snow off the ground and kept it in a box,'' continues Foster. ``Eight years later, she still had the box, and as soon as the show opened in New York, she replenished the snow and mixed it in.''

Polunin encourages his visitors to delight in the snow -- even collect it -- as long as they also understand that the ``Snowshow'' has a darker tinge as well.

``People who live in Northern countries will understand what I mean very well,'' says Polunin, speaking through a translator. ``When you live in a cold climate, like I lived in in Russia, we know snow means cold. It was quite often that you would see so much snow that it would cover the whole house up to the roof. Sometimes people would freeze to death.

``I try to put laughter and tragedy together in the show because the two things go hand in hand,'' he continues. ``Somebody falls. and we laugh at them falling, but the person might have broke their neck. There are other things traumatic for people as well: loneliness, loss of friends and loss of dreams. I chose these scenes for my show.''

If this sounds a little gloomy coming from a man who makes his living performing in baggy clothes and face makeup, well, Polunin didn't become one of the world's top clowns by doing birthday parties.

A native of Novosil in the province of Orlovsk, Polunin left his engineering studies in Leningrad to work in street pantomime. Borrowing from Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau and the clowning of Leonid Engibarov, Polunin created his sad alter ego, Asisyai, in the early 1980s.

`Clown of the future'

``At the end of the 20th century, all of the old types of clown art had dried up, and I was looking for new ways, new identities for the clown of the future,'' says Polunin. ``That's why I started studying other more contemporary art, such as experimental theater and surrealistic painting.''

He started a clown school in 1979, and continues to train clowns for Cirque du Soleil. In 1989 his ``Caravan of Peace'' traveled from Moscow to Paris.

``Slava's Snowshow'' premiered in 1993, and Polunin toured portions of it within Cirque du Soleil's ``Alegria'' in 1995. An off-Broadway company of ``Slava's Snowshow'' has been in place for 2 1/2 years, and Polunin estimates that he has brought snow to some 50 countries during the show's history.

Around the world

Polunin also says he adapts the show to the country where it is being performed: minimalism for England, more audience interaction for Spain, increased poeticism for France.

He chooses locales based largely on what parts of the world he would like to visit. This year, Polunin will spend New Year's in L.A. Next year, it will be Hong Kong. His children, now 19 and 22, have grown up with the show and have friends all over the world.

Polunin also cautions against parents treating the ``Snowshow'' exclusively as a family show. Between the darker imagery and the exuberance that adults display during the free-

for-all finale, very little ones might end up squashed.

``The show was made not for children, but for adults,'' says Polunin, ``because I wanted to help adults to become children again, to get back to their childhood dreams and desires.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

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SLAVA'S SNOWSHOW

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, some Thursday and Friday matinees; through Jan. 7.

Tickets: $42 to $68. [phone]. www.uclalive.org.

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Slava Polunin took parts of his sometimes difficult childhood spent growing up in frigid Russia and combined them with some of the more delightful aspects of playing in the snow for ``Slava's Snowshow,'' opening Thursday at UCLA's Royce Hall.