The Night Before Christmas
What’s your first clue? There on the beautiful, realistically-delivered storeroom set created for the Furious Theatre Company by Christie Wright sits a jaunty Christmas tree – with its star hanging crookedly to one side. The first moments onstage are intense. Simon, a large, belligerent bloke (Troy Metcalf) gives his “mate,” Gary (Doug Newell), the what-for for dragging him out of bed on Christmas Eve. You may have noticed the use of decidedly un-American slang in that last sentence. That’s right. Furious whisks us all the way back to the home of Yule for a proper dash of Christmas cheer.
What is so pressing on such an important night? It seems that Gary has captured an Elf (that’s right, an Elf, played by K.M. Davies who may or may not be one) pilfering the supplies, and doesn’t know what to do with him. It’s enough to make Simon take off his coat to stay awhile, thus precipitating a delicious sight gag involving his truly imaginative p.j.’s, designed by Christy Hauptman.
The two men interrogate the Elf, only to learn that Christmas has deteriorated so badly that Santa’s helpers are reduced merely to “enhancing” all presents not wrapped in plastic. However, since they are detaining the lad, a sizeable chunk of London will not have that service.
Into this mix comes Gary’s “service representative,” a prostitute named Cherry (Nina Silver) insisting on payment of one Power Ranger set for her son’s Christmas. The Elf begins to fail from lack of Christmas Cheer, and offers the trio each a wish if they will let him go. And the bulk of the zippy hour-long piece proceeds as the three bicker over what these wishes might be. The result is a tough, sweet entertainment that barely veers away from becoming treacly.
The tightly-directed play by Robert Pescovitz succeeds in resurrecting Christmas spirit in the most cynical theatre goer. He is aided by energetic performances from the cast of four, especially K.M. Davies’ most endearing Elf. Credit the superior accent work all around to founding Furious member Sara Hennessy, and you have another of Furious’s uniformly superior theatrical adventures.
"The Night Before Christmas" continues through December 20, 2008 at the Carrie Hamilton Theatre in the Pasadena Playhouse Complex, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena 91101. Tickets, $20.00, Students $10.00, online at www.furioustheatre.org, or phone (800) 595-4849.