CHRISTMASTOWN – REVIEW OF 2024 PRODUCTION IN PORT HOPE

Reviewed by James Karas

Christmastown is a new play by Briana Brwon that premiered at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope on August 17, 2024. It is an ambitious comedy with many farcical elements that has some virtues and some aspects that are mystifying.

The small town of Kringle, Ontario needs to give its economy a kick in the butt or bring tourists to prop up its financial health. The citizens decide to promote Kringle like a year-round holiday attraction using the theme of Christmas but at the same time reflect inclusivity.

The town reeve (and gas station owner) is the lively Mary (Deborah Drakeford), dressed in Santa attire, who, with help of townspeople like convenience store owner Nora (Alison Deon), her teenage daughter Adeline (Mirabella Sundar Singh), Sam (Darrel Gamotin) and Jeff (Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski) will achieve the desired goal.                       

                                 

Mirabella Sundar Singh, Deborah Drakeford, Alison Deon, 

Darrel Gamotin, and Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski. 
Photo: Sam Moffatt

Despite the heatwave, the townspeople of Kringle start early, say in August but run into an impenetrable obstacle. The usual terms used to celebrate Christmas have been copyrighted by a big and nasty company and if Kringle is to pursue its ambition it must comply with the trade mark restrictions of the TM owner.

Kringle will be visited by several Trademark inspectors (all of them played by Christy Bruce). There is some magic involved, some of which escaped me and there is a snitch among the townspeople but all is par for the course of the farce.

There is a lot of commotion, door-slamming exits and entrances, much over-acting that can be considered normal fare in a farce. Some parts of the play were unclear as in the appearance of one inspector and the showing of a video that I could not follow.

Parts of Santa clothes are worn by some of the cast, Nora is shown dressed in a large box like a Christmas present, Jeff shows up representing an elf with his well-built upper body naked and some other colourful attires. Jeff who acts very silly turns out to be gay and is adopting a little girl.

Despite the energetic and sometimes overdone acting, some of the jokes misfired. The play is creaky and seems to be getting nowhere. It could use the help of rewrites and perhaps a helping hand from a dramaturge.

I enjoyed my first visit to the pleasant atmosphere of the Capitol Theatre. The main street of Port Hope is under serious construction but with a bit of care you can find your way. The theatre has 350 seats and there were volunteers all over. I asked one of them about their number and she told me 350. The program puts the number at 150.   
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Christmastown by Briana Brown opened on August 17 and will run until September 1, 2024 at the Capitol Theatre, Port Hope, Ontario.

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press