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TO’s latest Christmas show has all the fun, songs, laughs

December 3, 2014   ·   0 Comments

Before a play begins at Theatre Orangeville, Artistic Director David Nairn comes out and thanks all the sponsors and the audience and says, “Enjoy the show!”

And as his prelude to Everything I love about Christmas, he invites the audience to take a deep breath, exhale and just let go, relax, go with the flow (some of his words, all of his meaning).

Quite right, too, because this show is foolish in many places, mostly light-hearted, full of your favourite and most familiar Christmas songs and altogether delightful. This is one of those shows where the cast is having so much fun that the audience is, for sure, carried away with them.

The story line is just enough, without being complicated, and the message is clear: Christmas matters, it is a great time for family and for taking time off to enjoy the cheer of it.

So, basically, there are two elves, a family of grandfather, mother, father and three children: a first year university student daughter, an almost teenage son and a seven year old little girl. The eldest, Susan, gets stuck in a bus station on her way home due to extremely inclement weather which closes the roads so the buses cannot get through.

The rest of the family, although concerned for Susan, decide to make the best of a sad situation and sing and party their Christmas Eve away, as is their annual wont. Every once in a while, Susan calls from her cell phone to give an update on how much longer she is going to be delayed, as far as she knows.

Into the mix flit the elves, Theodora and Barnaby, admirably over the top, first at the bus station, disguised as fellow passengers; then, at the family home, posing as new – and impoverished – neighbours; then, you’ll never know when they will next turn up.

Granddad, played by Ian Downie, whom many of you will recognise most recently from a TD advertisement, narrates somewhat, as the glue that holds the whole together, joining in the song and dance as spritely as the youngsters.

The T.O.Y.S. choir acts as punctuation to the proceedings, sliding in from one side or another of the theatre to lead the cast in Christmas carols. They are welcomed in almost every Christmas show as a reminder of the way in which Theatre Orangeville brings music and theatre into the lives of the youth in this area. This is the message of the show, after all – the family, the children and what could remind us all more than a choir of children singing?

In the second act, as an extremely rare treat, Santa is played by himself, and he sort-of sorts things out but the heavy work is actually done by his elf-in-training, Barnaby.

As always, it is great to see some of the talented youngsters playing their parts in the show. Back on the stage are Jayde Lavoie, Christopher DuBois and Lindsay Scheel, each taking on the role of one of the three children.

Miss Lavoie agonizes beautifully over being away from her family and stuck at the bus station where she also mourns her lousy marks in her first semester of university and her seeming inability to get herself organised well enough to handle the work load. Her depression deepens with every dreary announcement about the weather and the absence of transportation. Clearly a damsel in need of rescue.

Christopher DuBois is a shining presence on the stage, all the moves, all the songs, so natural and funny, a pleasure to watch. This young man clearly loves the whole business of acting and singing – just being on stage. We expect he will do much more of this – we hope so.

He and his sister, Gracie, put on a shadow puppet show between them during the first act and it is one of the highlights of the play.

Lindsay Scheel plays Gracie. Last year, she was a Sugar Plum Fairy who changed the sets by theatre magic and her only spoke line in that play was the last line in the show. This year, she has lots to say as her character and she delivers the dialogue with grand aplomb.

Naturally, it is a pleasure to have Bobby Prochaska as the father, Ted, and Alison Lawrence, as mom, Maggie, back in the Theatre Orangeville stage.

They round out the lightness and fun of the show, balancing the joy of Christmas Eve with missing Susan and their concern for her.

This is a humorous romp with many of the elements that make Christmas what it is or should be, with a real message at the very end. Bring your granny, bring your kids (5years old and up), come and enjoy yourselves – relax with an “ahhhh” and let the world spin without you for these pleasant couple of hours.

Everything I Love About Christmas runs until December 21. For more information and tickets call the Box Office 519-942-3423 or online: www.threatreorangeville.ca

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