The Night Before Christmas

Relatively new playwright Kirsty Budding has turned out a few full-length stage plays in the past couple of years, and many shorter ones.  Her latest to hit the boards is an hour-long tale… of Christmas tales for children.  Jaded teenagers whose only exposure to life has been via their gadgets find themselves welcoming an opportunity to hear some stories, the entry point for Budding’s modernised retelling — or rather rewriting for the stage — of several classic Christmas tales.  With story piling upon story, I lost all track of how many cast members were involved.

Though much of it was a little hyperactively performed for adult tastes, the action, dialogue, and plot points of this multilayered tale hit the right spot for small children; infectious laughter demonstrated these (possibly first-time) audience members’ understanding and appreciation of the wit they were exposed to.

I was particularly taken by the character that Austen Saunders portrayed, the tailor of Gloucester — Saunders becoming the character of the old craftsman, body and soul — and delighted in the ability that Brenton Cleaves, as Simkin, the tailor’s cat, displayed in communicating clearly to the audience his message and his private thoughts using only body language and variations on the word “meow”.  But the entire cast’s sheer exuberance contributed to making the production great fun throughout, especially for young children.

John P. Harvey

Image: (L–R) Ethan Gumbrell, Kieren Larkin, Vivien Murray, and Sophie Schiliro, in The Night Before Christmas.  Photographer: John P. Harvey.