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If you couldn't visit the Swiss Alps in 1907, they would come to you.
Historically, the London stage was more than an outlet for storytelling; it was also a way to transport audiences to other lands — often to experience alarming things from the comfort and safety of an auditorium seat. The relatively new Hippodrome theatre at Leicester Square was one such IMAX of its day. In 1906, it recreated the devastating San Francisco earthquake that'd happened just months previously (clearly "too soon?" wasn't a thing back then), with scenes of gaiety swiftly descending into fire, flood and fear.
In September 1907, another terrifying act of god was recreated, in a play called The Avalanche. For this, a towering Swiss 'mountainside' was erected on the Hippodrome's stage: "From the loftiest point at the back of the stage, reaching across the arena, a huge staging is erected," reported the Morning Advertiser, "a descent, irregular in formation, covered with glistening snow and flanked on each side with "thick ribbed ice" down which Swiss skiers and tobogganers glide with breakneck rapidity.
"One may fancy himself transported to Switzerland direct from Charing-cross-road without the fatigue of travel."
While mountain scenery had been painted for the London stage plenty of times before, this was the first time a realistic mountainside has been constructed. And it wasn't just the scenery that felt authentic; the aforementioned skiers and tobogganists were the real deal (flying down a 70-feet incline which ran from the back of the stage, right beneath the building), as were various mountain guides and Tyrolean singers and dancers, drafted in for the show. They mingled with an international cast of actors, in a story set on the happy wedding day of a couple, Andre and Lisette. Of course, things don't stay jolly for long — enter the character of a jealous brother, following by a raging storm, then an almighty avalanche, bringing with it a torrent of water, tumbling snow and boulders — while certain cast members, "seem to be swept to certain death before the eyes of the spectators".
Though unfortunately we can't reproduce it here, there's a marvellous illustration of the avalanche in full effect, printed in the Graphic at the time. That publication hailed the avalanche a 'triumph in realism', while the Morning Advertiser gushed: "It is not the language of exaggerated eulogy to say that a more impressively awe-inspiring tableau has never been witnessed within the four walls of any theatre."
The Avalanche, so far as we can tell, ran for an impressive 170 shows. As they say, there's no business like snow business.
