It's Snowing on Saltspring great Xmas giggle
If David Mamet's House of Games is your idea of engaging stage humour, you probably won't want to see ACT's reprise of It's Snowing on Saltspring. Saltspring is Nicola Cavendish's iconic 1985 Christmastime total feel-good phantasy. Heavy on the dark and sardonic it definitely is not.
Oh sure, it starts off with various stage tropes around mid-life crisis blue funk, pregnant-wife-estrangement, endless broods & buzz-kills from hubby. But with the wink of an eye in come some randy neighbours, a riotous Sandy Claws, kandy kanes and bag-after-bag of chocolate Viva Puffs. In short order it's one bejeesus big seasonal confection almost impossible not to giggle at -- whether again, or maybe, like me, for the first time.
Plot overview : Middle age dentist Bill Bannister (Andrew McNee) is married to a v-e-r-y pregnant Sarah (Juno Rinaldi) whose baby is coupla fat weeks past due. Bannister is freaking. Babies don't come with instruction manuals. But not just this is his source of angst. He's on a sabbatical from his Vancouver dentistry practice, too. Sarah explains "he's got the itch to run", just like his Dad did to him and his Mom three decades earlier when he was 10. But soon their neighbours sweep in -- the Kanes, wife Martha (Deborah Williams) and The Rev. hubby Kris (Joel Wirkkunen). Martha is a flutter of well-wishes, manic cleaning and puttering amidst a flurry of naughty one-liners such as "I smell hot rubber -- we're not interrupting anything here, are we...?" For his part Rev. Kris reels off seasonal bible verses like an eager circuit preacher, but his angelic quotes are delivered devilishly, eyes atwinkle to fit the season. Mid-verse he grabs Martha and does a vertical version of the horizontal mambo right in the Bannister kitchen. "Kris is full of the holy moly spirit!" Martha titters.
Shortly the realtor who sold the fixer-upper to the Bannisters some months back, Bernice Snarpley (Beatrice Zeilinger), arrives. She's a Weyburn, SK gal come west after being jilted by her business partner / lover Shirl who after 15 years "out" opted back "in" for a hetero marriage. Snarpley has come to have Bill and Sarah sign a contract to sell the cottage in the new year. Seems our boy Bill hasn't told Sarah about his plans to do this so they can act out his phantasy to escape to the Canary Islands. Sarah explodes and hucks Bill his jammies to sleep on the front room couch. But not before she leaves a note for Santa : "Dear Santa. I believe in you. I believe in miracles. Please advise." Right on cue Santa arrives and whisks Bill away in a Rod Serling-esque dream sequence to the North Pole.
Act 2 provides Bill's deliverance -- comic, antic variations of Miracle on 34th Street stuff -- that finds Bill have his epiphany at last and drift back to the Christmas hearth on Saltspring a changed and chastened and cheerful reformed chump of a swell guy.
First impressions and character take : As a newbie to this Cavendish script, I found Saltspring a small wonder. Sentimental, sure, but in a madcap farcical kind of way. Not preachy or larded with homilies, just a bunch of witty epigrams to reflect the better angels we try to coax out of one another this time of year to scare away winter blahs and crud.
As with so much comedy, the first act is an extended build-up to the fast-paced second act where all the conflicts find resolve. And it is the second act of Saltspring that had folks behind me exclaiming "Oh, wasn't that just so much fun!" while more than one 50-something couple grinned at one another and held hands on their way out.
The secret to the fun of this piece is the excellent cast ensemble selected by Director Lois Anderson. As scripted by Cavendish, The Rev. Kris and Martha Kane from Act 1 morph into Sandy and Martha Claus at the second act's North Pole. Snarpley becomes head elf Grindle O'Darby in pig-snout headgear, while Sarah plays Grindle's main grab Peggy. The dialogue is in cute rhymed couplets the whole scene in the sing-songy cadence of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.
This Christmas Eve Santa's factory at the North Pole is a madhouse. Grindle has a major toothache he's medicating with liquor. The toy conveyor belt filling Santa's sleigh is broke. The dozens of helper elves are whooping it up farting and kai-yai-ing instead of wrapping and packing. Martha yells out the window to whoever is bombarding the scene with music : "My nerves, my nerves are frightfully shattered / Play it tomorrow when it doesn't matter!" And in all the raging pandemonium it is the sight gags of Wirkkunen and Williams as Santa and Martha throwing their sizable girths at one another, blowing kisses, feigning the nudgy-wudgy, pirhouetting around the stage like manic overfed fire ants that make this a laugh-out-loud hoo-ha.
As Bill Bannister, Andrew McNee delights. His reversion to his kleptomaniac youth, even stealing from Santa, was a spot-on touch. Any adult who's had a bout or two of existential angst will relate to his rants and fits and goofy "Let me out of this nightmare, now!" moments. Juno Rinaldi as Sarah is just right as the chirpy, spunky wife who tries desperately to cling to hope and good cheer while living with a man who used to make her laugh but is now Drudge One. Beatrice Zeilinger with her droll no-nonsense schtick brought to mind Frances McDormond's Marge Gunderson in Fargo. When the atmosphere gets a bit tense between Bill and Sarah she remarks, deadpan : "Times like this I just wanna hook up the power washer, put on a little k.d. lang and blow the dirt out of everything!" Perfect SK farm gal with heart as big as the prairie.
Production values : As a Cariboo cabin owner, I was struck instantly by Set Designer Ted Roberts' excellent rendition of the getaway rural place with its vaulted ceilings, Franklin stove against rock firewall, and Sally Ann puke green chesterfield. But his transformation of that set to Santa's workshop at the Pole with the colourful toys and boxes oozing out of every pore of the stage and the stacks of fileboxes with old Letters to Santa was even more to celebrate. Kudos, too, to the stage-hands who expertly flipped the props and scenery in mere seconds between the two sets. Bravo! indeed.
Costume Designer Darryl Milot did not miss one detail in outfitting these characters. Tribute in the program to original designer Phillip Clarkson tells me Mr. Milot followed much of his predecessor's lead for 2013. The Mr. & Mrs. Claus outfits were particularly delicious, as were the O'Darby pig-snout get-ups.
Who gonna like : Maybe a bit sexified for grammar school juniors, but highly recommended for +8's and adults alike. You owe it to yourself to enjoy the season's spark and mirth and spontaneity and magic this production provides -- you can't help but be charmed!
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