A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
Synergy Theatre Company
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In translating the Peanuts TV special to the stage, director Tony Stavish employs the same technique fellow Metraform members Jill and Faith Soloway used to create their cult hit The Real Live Brady Bunch, currently playing in New York: you just appropriate the program, performing it verbatim onstage. The Soloway sisters were content to win laughs by re-creating the look, feel, and aura of The Brady Bunch–a re-creation best illustrated by Becky Thyre’s uncanny impersonation of Marcia Brady–but Stavish is after bigger game. This production simultaneously plays on our nostalgia for the ultimate 60s Christmas special even as it deconstructs it, exploring the various ways the show manipulates its audience, satisfying the contradictory goals of attracting advertisers and attacking the commercialization of Christmas.
This is not to say that Stavis and company are after picture-perfect imitations. In fact, all of the characters’ personalities are heightened just enough to reveal that what Schulz clearly thinks are charming quirks are actually major character flaws. Matt Walsh’s Charlie Brown is not merely sad, he’s seriously depressed; Kate Flannery’s Lucy is not a fussbudget but a young Leona Helmsley; Jodi Lennon’s Frieda is not merely happy with her hair but a screaming narcissist. The more we get to know the characters, the less likely the show’s feel-good ending seems.
Bouwman’s decision to set the play in 2025 AD proves to be a wise one. It frees him from the responsibility of finding Albee’s nonexistent social message and gives costume designer Shawn Martin a nice excuse for creating some wild futuristic outfits, as absurd and pointedly pointless as the play’s dialogue.
