At the heart of The Snow Sister is Julian, a boy mourning the death of his sister, and Hedvig, the mysterious girl whose magical Christmas house glows with warmth, light, and memory. Their meeting unfolds as a story of friendship, reconciliation, and learning to face grief — a children’s perspective on death told with remarkable tenderness and emotional force. The play never shies from loss, yet frames it within the radiance of Christmas, where memory and magic intertwine.

For Øyen, this was the rare kind of family production worth staging: a story that embraces complexity and universality. The staging is both intimate and spectacular, filling the main stage with theatrical transformations: an icy fjord that cracks open for skating and peril, a recreated swimming pool, and the bustling print workshop of Hedvig’s brother. Åsmund Færavaag’s scenography captures the maximalism of Hedvig’s Christmas world in contrast to the sparse sadness of Julian’s home, while Stine Sjøgren’s costumes evoke both timeless childhood and a pre-digital world, resonant across generations. Henrik Skram’s sweeping, cinematic score — recorded by the symphony orchestra of Kilden Teater — heightened the experience, enveloping the production in a filmic sound world that carried the audience into its emotional core.

Performed on Det Norske Teatret’s large-sized main stage, the show has the sweep and emotional pull of a Broadway spectacle. Yet at its core it remains a deeply human story, carried by young performers and sustained by the rapt attention of children and adults alike for an hour and a half. With original music by Odd Nordstoga and Henrik Skram, and staging rich in theatrical trickery, The Snow Sister has become a sell-out Christmas tradition — an unforgettable evening where laughter, tears, and wonder meet under the glow of holiday light.