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Regional Reviews: St. Louis A Christmas Short Play Festival Also see Richard's review of Emma
The program begins and ends with classic storytelling. First off, Thornton Wilder's The Long Christmas Dinner, first published in 1931, gracefully tells the nine-decade story of a family who first settled in Missouri in the 1840s. Generation by generation, they enter and float around a long farm table, eating pantomime turkey. The table becomes a sort of sundial to measure their progress, as life and death become the whole story, along with the occasional desperation to have one's own story too. The masterful stage veteran Laura Kyro plays Genevieve, one of the family members in this theatre-in-the-round, going mad with impatience as the great cities of Europe beckon. The vintage dresses for the women include heirlooms from the family of producer/director Owen Brown. The cast also includes Haley Clegg as Lucia I and Lucia II. This first story revolves around the rising fortunes of a frontier household, where corruption and war and death act as the great levelers. Pietro D'Alessio is commanding as Charles, one of the first children born there, and grows into a fearsome presence. His son Roderick II (played by the splendid Nicholas Urbanowicz) likewise goes mad, over being locked inside this orbit. Tara Laurel plays the second, gentle matriarch Leonora, gutted by the occasional death, as one character after another slips out through a narrow black curtain. Bo Hanley plays two different elderly women with great warmth and charm: the original matriarch and later a visiting cousin left all alone at the end, like Violet Weston in August: Osage County. Adam Usry is very fine as the original patriarch and later as an upstanding young man, with his whole family confidently cheering him on as he marches off to the Great War and out through that black curtain. The economy of Wilder's writing is hypnotic, and its truths come at you in unexpected ways. Michael Cox is fantastically feline as a house cat left behind on Christmas day, growing vengeful, in Bosco's Xmas, the second one-act written by Carol W. Berman, directed by Travis Pfeifer, and receiving its world premiere here. They all put the "play" in "play." The same Michael Cox wrote the third script, and later just about steals the entire show in the evening's final one-act. Mr. Cox's new play, The Last Mall Santa, directed by Chandler Spradling, is desolate on an unexpected level as Jordan Matt-Zeitler tells the (nearly) one-man story of acting as St. Nick in a brand new shopping center in the 1980s, and on for years until the center was finally demolished. You can almost smell the free popcorn at Sears-Roebuck as he paces back and forth in a now-forgotten corner of a dying mall. The Sappington House is located just a few blocks north of the now-demolished Crestwood Plaza here in St. Louis, adding resonance. The mall Santa is finally visited by the already adept Riley Schelmbauer as a little girl, far from understanding the rules of Christmas and finances, even in modern times. They probably should have left that black curtain in place for this one too, though only for a lost ideal. After an intermission, we find ourselves in a closed Walmart, after hours. Where that mall Santa operated in his own private circle of loss, the three former drug addicts in the world premiere of Baked Alaska (written by Kelli Lynn Woodend and directed by Mr. Spradling) each exist in circles of ironic desolation. Hannah Lindsey is grizzled and down-market as their rehab counselor, helping them pick out toys for their children. Connor Malone, John Emery, and Mr. Matt-Zeitler easily josh and self-abnegate as they struggle back from the edge of ruin. The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry is the grand finale. The story is so familiar, you mostly just watch for the warm transitions, the ecstatic builds, and all the interstitial moments, perfectly developed by director Travis Pfeifer. The climactic moments are equally satisfying. Mr. Cox (from Bosco's Xmas) glows as Jim, and the wonderful Livy Potthoff is Della. There's a strange, very rich kind of luxury in this Gift of the Magi, adapted by Dan Neidermyer. The familiar 1905 short story is beautifully retold by these two actors, with the help of the very fine Bruce Jehling in a couple of side roles, and mysterious Abby Robinson as a wig-maker. She also appears as a nurse in The Long Christmas Dinner. Every moment of confounding loss, and of romantic sacrifice denied in our own lives, is somehow made beautiful here. A Christmas Short Play Festival runs through December 13, 2025, at Bread & Wine Theatre Company, 1015 South Sappington Rd. (behind the Sappington House Museum - follow the signs), St. Louis MO. No late admissions. For tickets and more information, please visit www.breadandwinetheatreco.com. The Long Christmas Dinner Cast: Bosco's Xmas Cast: The Last Mall Santa Cast: Baked Alaska Cast: The Gift of the Magi Cast: Production Staff: |
