Sneaking a Peek at the Santaland Diaries

I love fruitcake. But not all people enjoy it.

The question you should ask before seeing Santaland Diaries and Other Stories is, “Which direction does your taste in holiday fare lean?”

Almost everyone likes Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, the green and red chocolate kisses of Christmas shows, and many like the striped peppermint candy cane of the holiday season, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, or even the honey baked ham of A Christmas Carol. But what if, in your yuletide confection, you encounter the occasional chewy green thing and an unexpected nut hidden within the rum soaked bread? That’s how I felt about the Santaland Diaries. There were a few bits that were hard to swallow but the overall dish was highly enjoyable.

Written by NPR commentator and humorist David Sedaris, the show is comprised of three stories ending with the title piece. The strange, sometimes heartwarming, oftentimes frightening tales of Crumpet the elf, based on the experiences of a 33 year old so desperate that he takes a job as an elf at Macy’s in their elaborate Santaland. Chris Maslen, a Seattle actor who also occasionally performs as a standup comic, is in no way elf-like, which only enhances his hilarious take on the character as he moves about from “Elf Island,” to “Oh My God Corner” and finally to “Santa’s Helper.” From the moment he balks at the employment page advertisement, through his first costumed appearance, to the march through his “shopping days left” countdown to freedom, the stories he tells made the audience laugh and gasp and yes, even contemplate the real meaning of Christmas.

But before we get there, two other stories, a bit on the darker side, are told which are filled with black humor and twisted insight.

The first is “Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol”, which was written as a hypercritical reviewer agonizing over the horrific performances and stage direction of elementary school children and their pageants. The treatment in the show is done in the now seemingly traditional two reviewer television format. Bouncing their cruel and sometimes uncannily accurate observations off each other with sardonic glee, they punctuated the reviews of three schools programs not with thumbs up or down, but instead simultaneous retching sounds.

The two actors (Chris Maslen is joined by local actor Tim Hoban here who then take the lead in the second story) seemed to want to create two very different characters for the piece, and though it made the give and take of observations more interesting from a theatrical perspective, at times one of the faux reviewers overshadowed the other. Beginning the show with simply a set of chairs, a spotlight and a piece filled with terrific one liners and hard truths, it was a great warm up for the full set.

The second piece can only be described as a holiday story that might well have been written by Edgar Allen Poe during a particularly deep moment of depression. Called “Christmas is Giving” it follows the well worn story of competitive neighbors and takes it to absurd levels, with each gesture of oneupmanship taking a more twisted turn. At this point the two actors began using much more of the set and props, using their well coordinated stage time to move pieces in and out, including two sets of rolling human outlines to represent other characters. The set and costume design by Judy Cullen worked beautifully here and in the title piece.

It seemed to me that the intermission came rather quickly, with less than an hour into the performance, but it was likely necessary as it would have been a shame to disrupt the final act and title piece.

For the best was yet to come, and though the language grew a bit coarser, the humor and insight into the human/elf condition was the perfect balance of observation, engagement, dark humor and ultimately celebration of the holiday season. It was my theatrical fruitcake for the season.

Produced by the Broadway Center and performed at the Theatre on the Square, Santaland Diaries runs through Sunday December 9th with shows on Thursday and Friday and a matinee and evening show on Saturday. Tickets are $29 apiece and $15 for Pierce County residents.

Link to the Broadway Center

Andrew Fry blogs about technology and Tacoma on his website Living and Working in the Virtual World. He is active both on stage and off in the the South Sound theater community.