HOLIDAY COMEDY HITS HOME
Play dishes out universal Christmas experiences as festive celebration goes hilariously off the rails
Greystone Theatre’s latest production Season’s Greetings succeeds on many levels. But as people begin preparations for the holidays, its best attribute might be the comfort it offers audience members. The show is warm and familiar, but most of all it’s almost painfully relatable. Every family is screwed up, never more so when everyone is crammed together under one roof.
The play by British writer Alan Ayckbourn is a portrait of a family whose festive celebration goes hilariously off the rails. Belinda Bunker (Kaelee Dyck) does everything she can to make the holiday experience perfect for her visiting relatives, while her pleasant but distracted husband Neville (James Mayo) ignores his hard-working spouse.
Personalities — including a frail, alcoholic sister-in-law Phyllis (Sam Fairweather) and a guntoting, action movie-loving uncle (Michael Martin) — collide with uproarious results. When Clive
(Max Perez), a novelist most of the family members have never met, arrives things get even more complicated.
Ayckbourn’s script excels in capturing universal Christmas experiences in all their quirky, chaotic, irksome glory. The Bunker family dynamic is certainly exaggerated, but it’s still easy to see one’s own family in the drinking, the fights and all the things people endure just to keep the peace. It’s hard to imagine audience members getting through the two-act play without a few big belly laughs.
The cast is effortless in its portrayal, but hard work is evident. Season’s Greetings has a prop collection so huge it has to be carted offstage in bins. The blocking by Pamela Haig Bartley is dynamic and makes great use of the stage. A homey and inviting set (by Allison Laxdal) also contributes to the authenticity. The only problem with the stage design is a loud and distracting swinging door, used frequently by cast members as they retreat to the kitchen.
The script takes great care to give each character great spotlight moments. They are all flawed and funny and sympathetic and complicated. Thanks to the cast, the play has great energy and momentum until the last line. Special mention goes to Dyck, who does a masterful job of conveying Belinda’s frustration, longing and heartbreak, all while maintaining a host’s composure.
Kyler Bueckert is similarly compelling as Bernard, a doctor with low self-esteem trying to stay calm as his drunk wife messes up in the kitchen and fellow family members critique his annual puppet show.
Greystone’s production is a gift. It’s not only supremely funny, it’s extremely well done.