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Culture Theatre

A Very Lupe Xmas

A VERY LUPE XMAS by Melissa D’Agostino (Fault Line). At Gallery 918 (918 Bathurst). To December 17. $20-$25. 416-538-0868, totix.com. See listing. Rating: NNN

Ever participated in a posada? Well, sensual South American Guadalupe Maria Milagrosa Josefina Paz Dominguez (Melissa D’Agostino) is here to guide you through the holidays in her typical authoritarian style.

he result is a funny, satiric nativity pageant with tinsel made of razor wire.

Lupe’s Three Wise Men are an Arab (Sam Kalilieh), a Jew (Adam Lazarus) and an energetic gay hairdresser (Phil Luzi) who won’t stay on book, much to Lupe’s mounting irritation. After his particularly disquieting version of Got To Be Real, she ejects him from the production, and subsequently finds fault with all the cast-mates. The second act brings her back a changed woman, and she spends the remainder of the show sourcing her new Wise Men from the audience via contests, including a high-stakes taco-stuffing competition.

D’Agostino brings lots of energy to the Gloria Estefan-loving Lupe, flirting and flouncing her way through the audience, and Khalileh, Lazarus and Luzi throw themselves into Monica Dottor’s wonderfully silly choreography.

But it’s not all fun: together with co-creator and director Lazarus, D’Agostino makes a strong point about the way stereotypes persist in holiday shows. The scene where Khalileh drops his Middle Eastern accent to call out Lupe on her hypocrisy is particularly resonant. The second act might be a bit longer than necessary, but that’s Lupe’s style – to draw things out a little past the point of comfort.

The show is a charming, comic take on the stuff we love/hate to put up with every holiday season. And if it comes with a silent lackey (Hart Massey) serving Timbits on a machete, who’s complaining?

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