One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six… Dylan Thomas
NOW I know Christmas is coming. Every year I attend an iteration of this lovingly crafted production at Irish Repertory Theatre. An amalgam of Dylan Thomas’s acted text and songs, both original (his text set to music) and traditional, takes us back to childhood in Swansea, Wales in the early 1920s. There are even a few songs in Welsh.
Ashley Robinson, Reed Lancaster and the Cast
I want a magician kit that does real magic, not just tricks…I got a whistle to make the dogs bark and wake up the old man next door… December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeer. But there were cats. Patent, cold, and callous, our hands wrapped in socks, we waited to snowball the cats… Why do we always have lava bread and cockles for breakfast? (The recipe on YouTube.)
Dylan (Reed Lancaster – too old) is surrounded by family – his father, (Ashley Robinson), mother (Kimberly Doreen Burns), and three unidentified relatives (Ali Ewoldt, Howard McGillin, and Polly McKie). We’re taken through the day from morning through dinner; gifts, family, neighbors, play. Caroling, the group stops at what appears to be a deserted house. They sing “Hark the Herald Angels” in quivering anticipation of ghosts. A small voice joins from on the other side of the door.
Kimberly Doreen Burns and the Cast
“Fire!” cried Mrs. Prothero, and she beat the dinner-gong. The children threw their snowballs into her kitchen. Jim and Dan and Jack padded through the still streets with Dylan leaving huge footprints on the hidden pavements. “I bet people will think there’s been hippos.” Thomas speaks of postmen with wind-cherried noses and Uncles almost certainly trying out their new cigars.
Charlotte Moore’s adaptation and direction are sentimental and smooth. Aesthetically pleasing tableaux collaborate with songs. Characters include one another when appropriate. Edited text (read or listen to the original!) is deftly interwoven with music. Use of bells is charming. The nostalgic piece is a lovely way to embrace the season – neither mercenary, nor corny, nor Hollywoodized.
Polly McKie and Ali Ewoldt
Vocal Arrangements (David Hancock Turner) are splendid. The warm, traditional Set (Colm McNally) evokes a nineteenth century holiday postcard. Costumes by David Toser, in velvet and dark plaid, are elegant – except that of Polly McKie.
Kimberly Doreen Burns and Ali Ewoldt (she’s played the role before) have lovely, liquid sopranos, engaging stage presence, and firm sense of ensemble. Both are a treat. Ashley Robinson (also a return player) offers twinkling eyes and singular delivery/appreciation of Thomas’s prose in addition to resembling the poet. Reed Lancaster (Dylan) alas never relishes what he’s saying or inhabits the role.
Also featuring a game Howard McGillin and a negligible Polly McKie.
Like warm punch and a fire, the show awaits.
Photos by Carol Rosegg
Opening: Kimberly Doreen Burns, Ashley Robinson, Reed Lancaster, Howard McGillin, Polly McKie,
and Ali Ewoldt
Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales
Adapted and Directed by Charlotte Moore
Musical Direction by David Hancock Turner
Irish Repertory Theatre
132 West 22nd Street
Through December 29, 2024
There’s a marvelous recording by Thomas himself which would make a wonderful holiday gift.
