Review: A CHRISTMAS CRISIS at Q Theatre, Auckland

Quite simply this is a hilarious and imaginatively staged Christmas comedy by Tom Sainsbury and Lara Fischel-Chisholm and presented by Dynamotion and Q Theatre.  For those not familiar with them, Dynamotion is Auckland’s favorite comedy dance crew. At the end of a busy year, as we move into the festive season, we may well be looking for that comic relief, that bit of “silly in the silly season!” If you want to be entertained, this production will certainly deliver. Although a little slow initially, the pace picks up in Act 2 and the season will see the show hone and polish its comic timing.

A Christmas Crisis is an intriguing blend of pantomime, witty wordplay delivered in superbly lip synced dialogue, and “bodacious” high energy dance routines that operate as strong linkages between the various story elements. No favoritism here in dance styles – we have rap, country hoe down, robotic, Scottish flings, balletic, hip hop, and even romantic tango! A clear favorite was the slow motion “melting” of the polar cap as the super yacht replete with its various celebrities and billionaire royalty attempt to stay afloat.

Each evening there is a guest story reader, who narrates the story written in clever rhyming couplets.  Four interconnected stories create a lively comedy.  Amidst many other side stories, we have a global warming crisis melting the polar ice, we have sole baker trader Ashley desperately trying to sell “Santa’s little tarts” and her “emotionally neglected cupcakes”, we have Santa’s elves who decide to take on the rampant commercialism of Temazon (“there’s nothing wrong with accumulating wealth”) and who attempt to rescue the crumbling economy, and the tragic break down of the 300 year marriage of Nick and Mrs Carol Claus.

There are many memorable moments – and performances - such as the magic dust which gets the elves high enough to replace the disenfranchised reindeer, to head off to “redistribute joy and hijack the super yacht”. Another highlight is the soothingly voiced Dr Rudolf Steiner – marriage counselor, who attempts to repair the troubled Claus couple. Unsuccessfully. Tom Sainsbury is brilliant as the unhappy and angry Carol, discontent with her life of “elf laundry and reindeer shit’, always “second to Christmas”. Nick’s response resonated well with the audience: “You knew my job when you married me.” 

Packed with plenty of witty one-liners, puns, word play and comedic performance, the four strands of the story line are successfully tightly interwoven into a cleverly executed  ending.

“Ships might sink, Hearts might break, But the spirit of Christmas lives on.”