A Christmas Wish:

It's like the curate's egg

Reviewed by Wasaam Ismail

Being a theatre enthusiast who tries not to miss any English plays in Colombo, I have come to realise that with lesser expectations comes better enjoyment. So as an old boy, I walked into the Lionel Wendt to watch my alma mater perform the much publicised A Christmas Wish with optimism, but not with much expectation.

The play was produced by Silent Hands Productions with a cast comprising present and past students of the school along with a few women. If I was asked to describe my personal opinion as a member of the audience in one sentence, I'd say, "Not too bad, sadly pretty amateur".

As someone who has directed children in the past, I know how tough it can be to get them to perform at a level you are satisfied with. In that respect I suppose we could cut the directors some slack towards certain aspects of the play's amateur standard. That being said, there were also quite a few enjoyable moments.

Choreography

There are two critical ingredients that make a musical play successful, singing and choreography. In terms of the singing, I thought the chorus sounded pretty good. Natalie and Mike's singing stood out from the rest.

A scene from A Christmas Wish

The choreography was disappointing. The dances were too simple and lacked creativity. I wasn't too impressed with the use of the stage either. For example, I would have expected to see a creatively choreographed dance sequence that shows the production process at Santa's workshop, instead of actors simply singing around tables in two corners of the stage.

The overall acting was good, but not great. Some could not be understood. Danu played a pretty good Santa, though his Santa pants were too tight. The reindeers were pleasant to watch. I especially liked the ones which were performed by Amaya Wijesinghe and Billam Poulier.

Decent

Though some of the acting was decent, I was disappointed with the overall characterisation of the ensemble. The Snow Flakes had some weird and inconsistent moves, while the Elves had no characterisation at all.

The scenes with Santa's evil sister the 'Snow Queen' reminded me a little of the scenes with the wicked witch of the west in 'The Wiz'.

The portrayal of the role by Neidra William's was decent. I felt that the depiction of magic in her scenes could have been cleverly complimented with sound effects.

Sound management was disastrous with some pretty obvious glitches. Microphones were switched on and off at wrong times, along with a few distracting noises that popped up at intervals. The play had some pretty elaborate backdrops which were complimented by good lighting effects. They succeeded in this aspect. However, the scene transitions could have been done more intelligently, as the play had too many blackouts. I was always under the impression that the North Pole was a very cold place. Natalie visited the North Pole in a short dress. The dress looked good on her, but she certainly did not look cold, neither did anyone else for that matter.

Humour

In terms of the script, it was all right for a 'children cum family' musical, but I would have personally preferred a bit more humour. There were times when the audience was in giggles, though in certain moments, I wasn't too sure if they were laughing with or at some of the actors.

On a more positive note, I am happy that the children at St. Peter's got an opportunity to get on stage. Theatre exposure always comes with a bundle of benefits. I started in a very similar production, under the same theatre company and school. I wish the cast and crew of the production the very best in all their future theatre endeavours.