Santa, Baby
– A showcase of ten-minute plays inspired by Christmas songs. Budding
Theatre at Canberra Theatre Centre, The Courtyard, December 16-17, 2016.
Producer –
Kirsty Budding; MC –
Jasper Lindell; Tech – Ashleigh Robinson, Jaeden McLaughlin, Craig Lesueur and Nick Foong.
Plays:
Mother and Child by Kate Roediger, directed by Domenic Mico, performed by Alison Bigg, Peter Fock, Andrew Wallace and Paul Jackson.
Not What You Expected by Judith Peterson, directed by Rachel Hogan, performed by Helen Way.
Gingerbread or Smarties? written and directed by Zoe Swan, performed by Austen Saunders and Robert Shiells.
Christmas in Yorkshire by Harriet Elvin, directed by Rob Defries, performed by Kate O’Sullivan, Kate Blackhurst, Karla Bogaart and Elain Noon.
Christmas Cheers by Frances McNair, directed by Kitty Malam, performed by Jaslyn Mairs, Lachy Agett, Breanna Macey and Patrick Galen-Mules.
Christmas Fairy by Adele Lewin and Nigel Palfreman, directed by Adele Lewin, performed by Adele Lewin.
Reindeer in Red
written and directed by Kirsty Budding, performed by Jess Waterhouse,
Chantel Johnston, Katrin Praseli, Angela Perrotta, Kirsty Budding,
Vandana Jaiswal, George Pulley and Grace Jasinski.
Statistically Speaking written and directed by Greg Gould, performed by Felicity Knott and Philip Meddows.
Reviewed by
Frank McKone
December 17
Budding
Theatre, its very name a play on the name of its originator, Kirsty
Budding, has now established a stage presence for “budding playwrights,
directors and performers” over its three years’ life. “We stage theatre
with and for adults, young adults and children across a range of
genres.”
This year’s “Christmas play showcase” was a mainly light
and mostly irreverent take on the assumed purpose of Christmas in
celebrating good will to all and sundry, even including Santa’s
relationship with his reindeer employees.
Though the format is reminiscent of the
Short and Sweet
competitions for 10-minute plays, and these plays vary considerably in
quality of writing, directing and acting, the evening as a whole,
compered competently with a neat line of humour by Jasper Lindell and
bookended by three-part singing from the three Angels – Judith Peterson,
Fiona Robertson and Michelle Priest – made for an entertaining, even
occasionally thoughtful, two hours.
Seen from my perspective
behind my Seniors Card, this was a Young Adult show in tone, yet some
issues behind what was often a stand-up comedy approach were significant
for all ages.
The mother, Mary, with her husband Joseph and
as-yet unnamed child, are refugees having made the perilous journey by
recalcitrant donkey across a vast desert to the border of a country of
safe haven. But the border protection policy of donkey turn-backs,
leaves them stranded – without even the donkey, which has to be
quarantined. The playing of the border guards as characters in a farce
to my mind was overdone. The point of the story in
Mother and Child
was made, but the farce took over, so the depth of despair that
refugees must feel today and which would have silenced our laughter,
even in just ten minutes, wasn’t achieved.
What we didn’t expect
in the next play was to find ourselves in the presence of "God", at the
launch of her new book – with wine, cheese and signed copies. Her name
is Trisha, played with an amazing eccentric kind of grace by Helen Way.
She is clearly not happy with her humans – mainly men, of course – who
have written their books taking her name in vain. The script of
Not What You Expected
is very clever and the performance well directed and very funny – and
the serious issue of the misuse of belief and religious power is not
lost. If there were a competition, I would have to say this was the
best play of the night.
Gingerbread or Smarties? saw two
young men’s friendship breaking up on their annual road trip. Though
the actors needed more training and experience to bring this off, and
the script could be developed more, the play is an interesting variation
on the celebration turning sour, and sad, theme. In this case, each of
the young men escape the expected demands of their families’ Christmas,
but on this occasion find themselves setting up the same kind of petty
conflicts (over what radio station to play while they drive, or whether
they prefer gingerbread or smarties) until the ultimate point of
breakup.
If you remember, as I’m sure you will, the Monty Python sketch called
The 4 Yorkshiremen,
then you will recognise that Harriet Elvin has borrowed the idea (with permission) and
extended it to ten minutes as the four now wealthyYorkshire women, with
pretty good accents, challenge each other with stories about their
poverty-stricken past. Though perhaps a little too long compared with
the shorter sharper original,
Christmas in Yorkshire worked very
well and got the appropriate laugh from the young adults on the final
line: “But you try and tell the young people today that ... and they
won’t believe ya’.”
Christmas Cheers
with Jack Frost behind the bar to which Santa retires – he drinks only
milk to avoid corrupting children – was an absurdist play so
deliberately disjointed that you had to be a young adult to follow all
the non-sequiturs. Breanna Macey’s performance as the jazz singer Noel
was a very high point. It was no wonder Santa fell in love (or just
lust?), and I did wonder whether the children would be corrupted by such
a thought.
Adele Lewin had such a sad story to tell as Crystal,
the top-of-the-Christmas-tree fairy once famous for her beauty who has
grown old, and who now year after year can only look forward to a life
among the secondhand goods in an op shop. Though Crystal could be a bit
of a bore and was even rather paranoid, Lewin’s performance in
Christmas Fairy left us all feeling seriously upset about anyone left alone at Christmas time.
The
four fashionably green reindeers – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen –
were bitchily mortified when Red-Nosed Rudolph terribly unfashionably
appeared on the catwalk dressed in red. The Young Adults in the
audience found it all lol funny, of course, until Santa (remember –
dressed in red) castigated the little bitches, and promptly had
consensual sex with Rudolph (played, of course, by a woman – indeed, the
author of the play
Reindeer in Red). I think the theme was
something about politically correct behaviour and non-discrimination at
the office Christmas party. But it was too funny to bother about that.
The
night concluded with a probably unintended nod to the recently formed
The Arts Party, whose policy (currently at the draft stage) ends with a
strong statement about supporting Science as the other side of the Arts
coin.
Statistically Speaking is a ten minute apparently
extremely unlikely romance entirely predicted by the use of statistics
by Milton to the great surprise of Steph – except for one point. The
statistics on women’s behaviour make it virtually inevitable that Steph
will include cranberry in her daily diet. But she doesn’t.
Though
by this stage of the talk, Steph has completely changed her view of
life and thoroughly fallen for Milton, he must say No without this piece
of his statistical jigsaw in place.
Whatever we should make of
this conclusion, which wasn’t after all as Christmassy as green
reindeers, it was quite thoughtful about the nature of love and good
will in a nerdy world.
 |
Felicity Knott as Steph and Philip Meadows as Milton
in Statistically Speaking by Greg Gould |
© Frank McKone, Canberra
