Theatre preview: Indyrefs in Quebec and Scotland inspired family drama First Snow

The title comes from a memory that has haunted the show’s leading actor, Quebecois stage and screen star Isabelle Vincent, for more than two decades. Back in 1995, just after the second Quebec independence referendum – which, like the first one 15 years earlier, ended in a “no” vote – she was walking through Montreal with her baby son in his push-chair, when snow began to fall, unseasonably early in the year. She thought that it could be the beginning of a long winter, for those who had hoped for a new beginning for Quebec; and now, her memory of that moment forms part of First Snow/Première Neige, a new co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and two Montreal-based companies – Theatre PAP and Hotel-Motel – which will appear during this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, at the hugely successful Canada Hub at the King’s Hall.