>>REVIEW
THE SANTALAND DIARIES
Runs until December 22
Lunchbox Theatre
Bow Valley Square
When David Sedaris first read his SantaLand Diaries on National Public Radio, it was with an American voice that possessed the kind of sardonic softness you might hear delivered from a lectern – a few pauses to adjust glasses, a knowing look at the audience. Measured with sly, satirical timing, Sedaris’s retrospectively calm delivery on the horrors of being a Macy’s Christmas elf was almost soothing.
In Lunchbox Theatre’s production of The SantaLand Diaries, that lectern has been kicked to the side and replaced by the lights and set dressing of a full theatrical production. One man is still speaking, but the tone is more manic comedy than understated satire. Perfect fare for lunchtime theatre.
Adapted as a one-man show by Joe Mantello, The SantaLand Diaries sees Dave Kelly, better known as the host of CityTV’s Breakfast Television, stepping into Sedaris’s curlicue elf shoes and running the formidable gauntlet that is Macy’s SantaLand. From the initial desperation that leads a 33-year-old man to apply to dress in green satin to the myriad of abuses heaped on him by parents hoping to immortalize an idealized Christmas in a photograph, "Crumpet" endures a holiday experience full of the worst of Christmas excesses. Though it ends tied like a Christmas bow with a bittersweet moment of holiday joy, Sedaris’s story consistently substitutes satire for traditional Christmas sap.
Kelly and director Rona Waddington take the inherent absurdity of Sedaris’s situation and add an ample portion of their own. Irate mothers are given abrasive New York accents, an over-energetic training elf leaps onto a desk and emotes with emphatic hand gestures, and an extended changing scene requires Kelly to frantically tear off his clothes before pulling on his ridiculous elf uniform. Save for the occasional raised eyebrow or facial twitch, subtlety is not a part of Lunchbox’s production.
As a performer, Kelly radiates energy and a palpable rapport with his audience. Rushing between set designer Terry Gunvordahl’s four rotating columns, cycling them to form the various centres in the SantaLand labyrinth, Kelly provides the manic physicality that separates the play from Sedaris’s original radio reading. Already a relatively intimate venue, Lunchbox Theatre seems even smaller with Kelly.
Though Sedaris’s experiences as an elf provided him with absurd encounters, it took the skill of a keen humorist to pull the truly hilarious from a Christmas spent on a department store floor covered in fake snow. In adding a layer of physical exaggeration to Sedaris’s already hyperbolic world, Lunchbox Theatre has produced an endearing experience of its own. |
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