As an antidote to an over-indulgence of Sugar Plum Fairies and Tiny Tims and the bad news about the economy, you might want to mosey over to the Bickford Theatre in Morristown. There, under the direction of John Pietrowski of the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, the denizens of Greater Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas, prepare to celebrate A Tuna Christmas.
This "companion piece" to Greater Tuna (performed at What Exit? in 2009) presents an affectionate comment on Southern small-town life and attitudes that morphs into mordant satire, skewering everyone who lives there and everything that happens there. Jim Ligon and Michael Irvin Pollard reunite to portray 22 eccentric characters of all ages and genders who inhabit this Bible Belt town where the Lions Club is too liberal and hating anyone who’s different is a contact sport. It's a town that has an elk hunting season and no elk! (Above: Jim Ligon as Joe Bob, community theater director, and Michael Irvin Pollard as waitress Helen Bedd)
In this production, the festivities include a contest for radio station OKKK's Best Christmas Yard Display, a production of A Christmas Carol (by "Charlie" Dickens) that is threatened by an unpaid electric bill, the efforts of The Smut Snatchers of the New Order to censor Christmas carols, and the shenanigans of the elusive Christmas Phantom who is wreaking havoc on those yard displays.
Pietrowski keeps the action moving along so fast that one wonders just how Ligon and Pollard can change costumes so quickly (hint: a great team of dressers behind the scenes accomplish this task). The two actors are transformed from Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie, radio show hosts on Radio OKKK, serving the Greater Tuna area, into, among others, Petey Fiske of the Greater Tuna Humane Society; waitresses Inita Goodwin and Helen Bedd; and chain-smoking Didi Snavely, purveyor of used weapons who decorates her tree with grenades, and her dimwitted husband R.R. who is consumed with sighting UFOs. (Above L-R: Michael Irvin Pollard as Stanley and Jim Ligon as Pearl Burris)
Ligon is a vision to behold in a green pantsuit as matron Bertha Bumiller (right), long-suffering wife of the absent Hank and mother to her twins, ex-reform school inmate Stanley and Charlene who are both involved in the local community theater production. Pollard plays these two, plus their little brother, dog-loving Jody, nailing teenage angst and rebellion on the nose. Ligon also plays Bertha’s aunt Pearl Burras, who is addicted to killing cardinals with a slingshot. Pollard matches Ligon laugh for laugh, especially as Vera Carp, vice-president of Smut Snatchers and the quintessential town snob.
Kudos to costume designer Ric McAllister for the over-the-top duds he’s cooked up for these characters. Roman Klima's lighting, props gathered by Danielle Pietrowski and Jeff Knapp’s sound (think country music Christmas songs) give an authentic feel to the set designed by James Bazewicz. (Left: Pollard as Vera Carp)
Playwrights Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard poke gentle fun and apply withering satire at the small-town South, in this case Texas. It’s easy to see why since the hilarious antics of these admitted stereotypes will have you holding your sides with laughter. However, to really soar, A Tuna Christmas requires two talented performers like Jim Ligon and Michael Irvin Pollard, whose tour de force performances are a great antidote to the recent spate of bad news. Bring a tissue to wipe your eyes; you’ll be crying from laughter.
Produced as a collaboration between the Bickford Theatre and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, A Tuna Christmas will be performed at the Bickford Theatre in the Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, through December 30, making a ticket an apt gift for the theater-lovers in your family. For information and tickets, call the box office at 973.971.3706 or visit online at www.bickfordtheatre.org.
(Photos by Tom Kelcec)
