Review: Feel All the Feels of Christmas at THE SANTALAND DIARIES at Portland Center Stage

You know that moment every year when you feel like Christmas has really come? It may be the day you put up the tree or watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. For me, and undoubtedly many other Portlanders, it's the day Darius Pierce climbs into his red and white striped tights and green fuzzy jacket and becomes Crumpet, the Macy's Christmas elf in THE SANTALAND DIARIES.

THE SANTALAND DIARIES is a one-man play based on the essay of the same name by David Sedaris. It chronicles a holiday season Sedaris spent working as Crumpet the elf in the New York City Macy's Santaland. Sedaris has a gift for observation and biting sense of humor, which combine in this hysterical, hopeful, and sometimes heartbreaking play about people during the holidays.

Portland Center Stage has been producing THE SANTALAND DIARIES for more than 10 years. For the past few, Crumpet has been played by local favorite Darius Pierce. I didn't see any of the three previous PCS Crumpets, and I'm sure they were all excellent, but I can't imagine someone more perfect in this role than Pierce. His comic timing is flawless, but for me it's really all in his expressions. I bet he could do the entire play in mime and you'd still understand every word, every emotion. And even though he has done this play for multiple seasons running, it still feels fresh.

The play, and Pierce's performance, perfectly capture what it's like to be an adult at Christmas -- the frustration at the ridiculous commercialization of it all, the need to keep up appearances for the camera, the secret desire to still believe in Santa Claus. It's like all of the feelings associated with the holiday season distilled into their purest form for about 75 minutes. Masterful!

THE SANTALAND DIARIES is popular and the theatre isn't very big -- you should probably make your plans now. The show runs through December 27. Get your tickets at www.pcs.org.

Photo credit: Patrick Weishampel