THEATRE: Oh! Christmas Tree, how lovely are thy branches
Anyone who doubts our desire to be entertained this Christmas only needs to check out the listings in the paper.
However, in this whirlwind of off-the-rack predigested Christmas fodder offered, could I suggest an ornament for your season? It’s a play called Oh! Christmas Tree, part of Theatre Network’s Roxy Performance Series in a co-production between Blunt Entertainment and Theatre of the New Heart. It unwraps nightly until Dec. 23 at the Roxy on Gateway. It’s a cozy place – not too big, not too small – and a welcoming home to enjoy intimate theatre. The family feel is heightened by this amiable show whose palatable charm hangs in the air like … well, a fresh Christmas tree just chopped down and sitting in the corner waiting to be decorated.
The show is written by Conni Massing – a much-produced local playwright whose recent work, the well-received Matara, just closed last week.
Oh! Christmas Tree is directed by Brian Deedrick, best known as an internationally acclaimed opera director who in recent years has helmed La Boheme, Aida, Lucia di Lammermoor (in Edmonton) and a highly-entertaining Into the Woods for Theatre Nuova last year. His specialty may be moving great numbers of people around vast stages – but in Oh! Christmas Tree he shows he’s right at home in an intimate family comedy. The play features two local actors – Lora Brovold and Collin Doyle – and all this seasonal coziness is only heightened by the fact that they happen to be married. Fah-la-la.
Massing’s story has Algar (Doyle) and Lucy (Brovold) planning marriage. They have just moved in together. Lucy is the youngest of five sisters in a cohesive family of Scandinavian descent. The family celebrates the season in the old way – which means pickled herring, traditional clog dances and much honouring of obscure traditions. During their courtship, Algar has managed to avoid Christmas – he is more Grinch than Cindy Lou Who. The product of a family that ignored the holiday, he has grown to detest it. The worst for him seems to be the Christmas tree which is harvested, he grumps, “in a ritualized tree slaughter.” He compares family Christmases to “some kind of Satanic rite” and decries gift-giving as “meaningless.” Lucy, meanwhile, is an event planner who’s drowning in cheer, and singing (impressively in Swedish) Christmas carols. The two are obviously in love, and the first hour of the play is constantly hilarious as they battle to find some common ground.
Matara was a fairly serious take on the plight of our elephant, also named Lucy. In Oh! Christmas Tree, Massing returns to the well-constructed, comic kind of play that established her reputation. The playwright hangs a whole series of small, unexpected funny moments in an artfully-crafted plot, delighting the audience. Deedrick moves things along nimbly and briskly. His fingerprints are all over the production, with little bits of ingenious comic action that will keep you chuckling. In one scene, the two have to meet with a pastor so they can marry in the church. They speak as themselves – but the voice of the pastor sounds like adults in the Peanuts cartoons, a hilarious wordless jabber that sounds like it’s being pushed through a post horn.
Deedrick is aided by the stand-out work of Brovold and Doyle. Both are seasoned performers – never letting the comedy get in the way of realistic and natural performances. The two are warmly appealing and the frisson between them is obvious.
After the first hour, the interplay begins to wane. Algar’s hatred of the season is so intractable (“Christmas is a form of ECO terrorism!”) that you begin to wonder if he loves her at all. If he did, surely he’d make some kind of accommodation. Her embrace of all that is Christmas may be a bit much, but at least she’s trying to find some middle ground with her immovable husband. The laughs disappear.
Will these two be able to survive the Christmas season? There is little doubt that Massing’s light touch will return and Deedrick and the excellent Roxy Theatre production team behind the show will guide these very likeable people back to a mutual Christmas understanding that is so right for them. Oh! Christmas Tree is a playful and entertaining holiday play.
READ review of Conni Massing’s last play, Matara (November 2018)
