'The SantaLand Diaries & Season's Greetings' at the Gamm

In The SantaLand Diaries, Gamm Resident Actor Steve Kidd is David Sedaris' representative. Kidd plays a version of Sedaris, whose goal in life in the early 1990's is to be a writer for the soap opera One Life To Live.  A few weeks into his move to New York City with no prospects of making it to "Lakeview", Sedaris take an "acting" job as Macy's Christmas elf named Crumpet.   

Sedaris' monologue about his experience was originally written as a commentary piece for NPR.  It is included in the book Barrel Fever and is adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello. Chris Byrnes directs the current Gamm Theatre production.

We quickly learn that it makes Crumpet's mouth hurt to speak with the forced enthusiasm that is required of him.  When on Santa duty, Crumpet is required by Santa Santa (a Santa who is never, ever, out of character) to sing Christmas carols with the children who visit.  Pushed beyond his limit, Crumpet complies, singing 'Silent Night' as a strung-out Billy Holiday. Sedaris sends up pushy parents, the menagerie of co-elves and the distinct personalities of a dozen Macy Santas, along with the industry that is "Christmas".  The backstage gossip, the crushes, the tantrums make for an amusing hour.  

The material is light and humorous by design.  Kidd, who also played the role of Crumpet last year at The Gamm, has a firm grasp of Sedaris' sardonic wit.  In character, he interacts fluidly with the audience and the line between Kidd, Sedaris and Crumpet become blurred.

In act two, we meet Jocelyn Dunbar (Casey Seymour Kim), another Sedaris creation.  Jocelyn is writing her annual holiday update letter to send to friends and family. Jocelyn is the epitome of the matriarch of a perfect, nuclear, family.  She has a faithful husband, three divine children, a house in a mid-western, suburban, subdivision, and in a Donna Reed touch, a talent for sewing.   

Our first clue that something may be amiss is when Jocelyn wonders aloud if we thought that she would take a year off from writing, given the legal cloud that the Dunbar family has been under.

Correction.  Jocelyn had the perfect nuclear family.

On Halloween, her husband's daughter, who he fathered on a tour of Vietnam, arrives unannounced on the doorstep.  From her appearance, Jocelyn mistakes her for a neighborhood child in costume as a hooker, and hands her a handful of nougat.

Jocelyn's un-wed daughter has recently given birth.  Jocelyn's first grandchild is named 'Satan Speaks' by his parents, and has to spend the first few weeks of his life detoxing, as he was born crack-addicted.  Jocelyn's nuclear family is exploding.  Jocelyn accepts each new indignity in stride, though a gritted-teeth smile.

Casey Seymour Kim lets herself be consumed by the character of Jocelyn.  Kim eases the audience into the cauldron of crazy.  We are like lobsters who are gently lifted into a cool pot of water.  By the time we realize that something is terribly wrong, it is far too late.

There are a couple moments when Kim, seamlessly, ad-libs as she gets a bigger-than-expected laugh or a piece of the gingerbread house she is decorating falls on the floor.  Kim's Jocelyn is part Madeline Kahn, part Annette Bening in American Beauty with just a touch of Alex Borstein's Ms. Swan from MadTV.  Directed by Wendy Overly, Season's Greetings is very funny, and equally disturbing.

The SantaLand Diaries & Seasons Greetings at The Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket, RI runs through December 23rd.

Tickets range from $20 - $34 and can be purchased by calling The Gamm's Box office at 401-723-4266 or by visiting www.arttixri.com. For more information visit www.gammtheatre.org

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