Celebrating St. Creskins
We can thank Henri Fabergé’s company Feint of Hart for a new December holiday, St. Creskins.
The company celebrated it in style this past weekend at Campbell House Museum, a house that gave the production a period feel.
Crisis On St. Creskins, a cabaret/play/site-specific show co-written by Fabergé, Alex Tindal, Kayla Lorette, Miguel Rivas and Roger Bainbridge, turns the audience into guests of the artistically inclined Hart College, run by headmistress Kåthe (Kathleen Philips-Locke), for the school’s annual holiday salon.
The college has also welcomed members of the all-male Boyce Naval Academy into its hallowed halls the east wing of the naval school burned down when Headmaster General Lorette (Lorette, in glorious drag) gave the young men an exercise they clearly weren’t up to, something involving a medium-to-large fire he set intentionally.
The boisterous cadets have been sharing space with the artsy Hart College folk for two weeks, and nerves are strained. It doesn’t help that Lorette brought his dying father (Alexis Taylor) along he lies chained in the upstairs bedroom so he won’t wander off.
As the two schools fight over the proper way to celebrate St. Creskins – a kind of Christmas holiday, with a miracle involving cannibalism and feeding a family – we’re treated to songs, comedy and a St. Creskins pageant in which students and teachers fight over who should play which roles.
There’s lots of cross-dressing and campy behaviour. You see the strained relationship between Fabergé, an art student, and his former “friend,” cadet Alex Tindal-Tindell (Tindal) Hart instructor Roget’s (Bainbridge) lecherous interest in Fabergé firm disciplinarian Instructor Rivas’s (Rivas) enjoyment in cuffing his pupils (Thomas Rivas and Adam Niebergall) a performance by free-expression dance instructor Hanya (Hannah Spear) and some blackmail involving the two school heads.
If you want a sense of the production’s tone, you’d get it from one of the holiday songs we were all asked to sing: It Came Upon A Midnight Queer.
The result? A show that’s quite silly and fun, filled with effervescent energy, naughty bits and a few groaners.
Fabergé’s been concocting these events for several years, initially at the U of T. And though we’ve not seen a fully staged show of his before – a different version of Crisis On St. Creskins ran last year – we’ll be sure to see his next production.
Holiday shows
In addition to the Nutcrackers and versions of A Christmas Carol we alerted you to a few weeks ago, other traditional December entertainment makes a welcome return to town.
Puppetmongers celebrates its 25th year of Christmas shows and the company’s 40th anniversary with the return of Bed & Breakfast. Created and performed by sibs Ann and David Powell, the show is set in a detailed Edwardian-era dollhouse, peopled by puppet servants and royalty. This version of The Princess And The Pea, mixed with Downton Abbey upstairs/downstairs relationships and a bit of The Perils Of Pauline, looks at the growing closeness between a prince and a housemaid.
Directed by Sue Miner, the production opens Friday (December 19) at the Tarragon Extra Space.
See listing.
Another welcome revival is Elizabeth-Darcy, Hallie Burt and Kate Werneburg’s two-woman version of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. They play a dozen or so figures from the novel, switching easily between male and female roles with a changed tone of voice or a small costume addition.
The walkabout show wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t staged where it began, in Campbell House Museum, which gives a good sense of period as we move from one room to another, following the misunderstandings and changing relationships involving the Bennett family and others in their social circle.
The production, directed by Tom Arthur Davis, opens Thursday (December 18) for a limited run.
See listing.
Stop and give
One of the themes of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is thinking about those in need. After watching Soulpepper’s fine production of the seasonal classic, be sure to donate to The Stop Community Food Centre, an organization that increases access to healthy food to people who truly need it, to maintain dignity and build a sense of community.
This is the third year that Soulpepper has partnered with The Stop for its holiday production. After the show, performers invite audiences to donate. Every dollar raised will be matched by the Sprott Foundation. In the first two years, The Stop raised over $100,000 for anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs.
The show runs to December 27 at the Young Centre. See listing. For more info on The Stop, go to thestop.org.
Healing Bard
For the past few months, the Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective, a volunteer group, has been touring hospitals with scenes and speeches from Shakespeare, entertaining those who are bed-ridden.
The company, made up indie theatre artists, presents a final pair of performances for the general public. They include the performers’ anecdotes about working in the wards and the Bard’s material they presented there.
Ensemble members are Andrew Joseph Richardson, Nicole Wilson, Alexander Offord, Kyle Villeneuve, Tom McGee, Victoria Urquhart, Erin Eldershaw, Emma Burns, Erin Roche, Andrew Gaunce, Andrea Massoud and Wilex Ly.
See listing.
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