The Long Christmas Ride Home

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Surrounded by a beautiful Japanese-style motif stage setting designed by Michael R. Duran, Mare Trevathan Philpot, dressed in black, regales a spirit of elegance with a heartbreaking story of deception, aloneness, separation on a long, a very long Christmas ride home with her husband and three children.

Karen Slack and puppeteers in a scene from The Long Christmas Ride Home.

Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel climbed into the magic of Christmas making several observations. Then she climbed into the façade of the magic of Christmas. The scene changed, Her observations changed. When she began to write, the two scenes folded into her newest play The Long Christmas Ride Home.

Curious Theatre Company presents the regional premiere of this wake up call play at the Acoma Center through December 18. This is only the third time the play has been preformed across the country. It definitely won’t be the last.

As we gallop into the holiday season in over-whelmed tradition of proving too much, eating too much, calculating disappointments, complaining the days aren’t long enough, whining over the stretched budget, exhausting the self over too many engagements, spending time with estranged family members, following the path of should’s, The Long Christmas Ride Home appears as a wake up call to pay attention to the now, for the Now will speak to the Future where the long Christmas ride home will be forgotten but the contents of that ride will sit on the shoulders driving the lives to distraction.

The Muse of Inspiration sat on Vogel’s shoulder as she fused together a concocted story, with Noh Japanese performance styles, Bunraku-influenced puppets, and mind punching choreography. Providing emotionalized exclamation comments, percussionist Jesus Marquez spoke volumes through gongs, drums, and chimes.

A simple story, but a story unfortunately repeated in one form or another skillions of times a year.

A family of five travels over the hills and through the woods to Grandmother and Grandfather’s house for Christmas.

Josh Robinson plays The Man driving his family in the ol’ Rambler. He juicily reveals his thoughts are far from his family. They feast on wanting to be with a woman by the name of Sheila. The Woman knows. Secretly confronting her own anxieties, fears, and inadequacies. Scrunched in the backseat are the three children punching and tormenting each other, being ignored until their childhood antics carry them out of control.

The children are life-size puppets cleverly and expertly maneuvered by Karen Slack as Rebecca, Stephen Pearce as Stephen, and Theresa Reid as Claire. The puppeteers transform into the personalities of the children as adults. Each one tells their story, revealing their hurts, loneliness, and separation of who and why they have become. Even in stylized performance, their stories are heartrending and heartbreaking.

Jason Henning plays the minister caught up in his love affair with Japan ignoring the truth of Christmas confusing the children, especially Claire who asks for Christmas Carols. Henning with smooth expertise lets body language speak, as he becomes both Grandmother and Grandfather. The Grandmother distributes disappointing gifts to the family she has gleaned from the trash. The gifts are silently accepted, but the moment remains.

The costumes designed by Jeremy Cole with the actors dressed in black and the puppets in colorful children’s outfits. It is astonishing how life-like puppets can become when given heart, soul, and a story line of their own.

Time and space come to a standstill and at the same time leap forward from a moment of anger and fit of violence as each child finds himself lost in an adult world of guilt and illness.

Directed by Chip Walton with the assistance of Dee Covington and Jennifer Orell, the thought-provoking mind stretching performance is a feast for the eyes, a feast for the mind, a confrontation for the heart, and a reminder for the soul. Now is a good time to pay attention so the magic of Christmas becomes the magic of tomorrow. The Long Christmas Ride Home could well become a tradition. It speaks, and Curious Theatre Company allows it to speak with clarity and expertise.