Third for the VC Reporter -- a theater review. 11/20/08
Ah, the good old days, when vice and virtue were rendered in unequivocal black and white, when a stocking-clad leg could represent lust and scandal, and when heart’s desire could be concentrated in an impassioned plea for an “Official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and a thing that tells the time.”
The world of Norman Rockwell may be dead and buried, but thanks to the mind of Jean Shepherd it enjoys a resurrection every December with his classic cinematic misadventure A Christmas Story. It’s likewise revived this month at Oxnard’s Elite Theatre Company, with their fun-filled, two-act take on Shepherd’s much-loved, loquacious yuletide tale. Deftly adapted to the stage by Philip Grecian, the production is cleverly mounted under the Elite’s compact proscenium by producer Mike Moffat and director Shawn W. Lanz.
A Christmas Story brings us into the life of young Ralphie Parker (ably characterized by Cameron Reilly), whose pre-adolescent yearnings in 1940 Indiana find inspiration in the endeavors of such period radio luminaries as Red Ryder and Little Orphan Annie. Christmas is coming, and Ralphie, held in thrall by the early tag-team efforts of Madison Avenue and Radio City, has an eye for adventure and a heart carved from the same sturdy oak as those of his heroes. Such greatness as theirs would be his, but for the lack of the coveted Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot range model air rifle. The mantra bears repetition, for it’s by that hallowed marketing copy that Ralphie’s star is charted; he imbues it with all the passion of the most fervent prayer, even as his dreams are dashed by his mother’s dreaded, insurmountable rejoinder, “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
The tale is offered as a fond reminiscence, and our guide down memory lane is the adult incarnation of Ralph himself -- played with conspiratorial charm by Arryck Adams -- who serves Shepherd’s confectionary, polysyllabic prose with cheeky aplomb, engaging us in a manner that bespeaks long and true friendship. The cast is rounded out in equal parts charm and mischief: from Ralphie’s acerbic Old Man (Dave Parmenter), of whom Ralphie quips, “my father worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay;” to his saintly Mother (Diedre Parmenter), who rides to his rescue more valiantly than ever Red Ryder dared; to an engaging sextet of his pre-adolescent contemporaries, including the splendid, hapless Flick (Kuba Chyla) and Ralphie’s sweetly enthusiastic, would-be love interest (McLane Martin).
In A Christmas Story audiences can find, just in time for the holidays, a most welcome reminder of an innocence that often seems irrevocably lost in these tumultuous times. In Ralphie, his family and his friends, we find much with which we can still identify, and as Shepherd’s 1940 evokes in us the timeless memory of our own magical Christmases and our own once-upon-a-times, perhaps we finally find that we aren’t so far gone after all.
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