Most people know him as Prancer, but this prima donna is just dying for attention. He is vying with Vixen Melissa Paper , the last of Santa's sexual exploits, for television airtime. This obnoxious, self-centered character is omnipresent, it seems, in successful circles of real life, blending agilely into the ranks of the opportunistic and bereft of moral values.
She is the rebel eager to take up any cause, the extremist left, the righteous believer, over-boiling with feminist rage. Her complement is Comet Zak Jeffries , the reformed junkie, now a hard-core conservative, who refuses to believe any detrimental life concerning the great, philanthropical St. Nicholas that rescued him from the gutters.
While Jeffries draws voluntary laughter from the audience, Wiseman is not quite as funny. She takes her role a little too seriously, masking the inherent humor.
Able carries the Jewish tradition of being persecuted quite well. Unfortunately, her lines are not delivered as smoothly as her persona. Pauses that may have been for emphasis or character turn into slightly uneasy silences, and repeated lines are similarly awkward.
Donner Richard Fawley has the most heartbreaking story of the bunch. He is Rudolph's father, the good-for-nothing Pop of a disfigured and currently catatonic freak.
Because he never amounted to anything, he put all of his hopes into his son, but when the young deer was born, it was clear that Rudolph had an even more nonexistent chance for success than his father. However, Santa Claus took a particular sexual liking to Rudolph, and thus began the downward spiral of courage and defeat. Fawley sounds the part very well, but he has this odd smirk on his face the entire time he's on stage, which is rather disconcerting.
Vixen is the last to go and reveals the least. By the time she finally hits the stage most of the mystery of whether or not Santa is really culpable has already been resolved one way or another. However, she provides a nice summary of emotions, offering no conclusion except the viewer's own. That is the magic of this type of distortion. The topic of sexual abuse has long been avoided or hidden, and anyone can sympathize with the victim, or the company with the reputation on the line, or the military school trying to save itself from disgrace.
However when the characters involved are reindeer and the criminal is none other than Santa Claus, the affair is put into a completely different light. Goode enhances the distorted effect with a dizzying mixture of pleasure and disquietude. The monologues are for the most part hilarious. Donner, for example, talks about flying into a large skyscraper that definitely wasn't there last Christmas. But then the lights fade red, and the stories turn dark, exposing the deep affliction brooding in each of these tormented souls.
The lighting and sound are a joint effort on the part of Stage Manager Stacey Shade, Sinsz and Thomas, and the trio also does some fabulous work with the music. After the first few monologues Christmas tunes ring out over cute pantomimes, breaking the tension established at the end of the previous scene. As the play progresses, the hilarious turns amusing, the dark turns disturbing and the Christmas tunes degrade into blurred nightmares of their former, cheery selves.
The whole production is jarring, making the viewer seriously consider the dysfunctional ways in which society deals with unmentionable subjects. In the process, it perverts Christmas beyond recognition, but a few minutes in any department store will soon fix that. The Eight: Reindeer Monologues is about two hours with one intermission.
It runs through Jan. This show is intended for mature audiences. Erica Hartmann. Erica is a budding techie involved in all things sprucification. More ». The monologues contain material inappropriate for minors. He is very smart and capable.
This is the first student-directed show to play on the main stage. He has his eyes set on transferring to the theatre department at Willamette University to continue his studies and to eventually make a name for himself as a playwright. Parking and meters are nearby. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch? Register for a user account. Donna Myers , Neighbor. Let's go! Thank Reply Share.
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