A Nice Family Christmas

A Nice Family Christmas premiered in Los Angeles in 2016 and was an excellent choice as a pre Christmas, fun play for the Limelight Players to tackle. Set on Christmas Eve, it follows a young newspaper reporter, on the brink of being fired, who has been assigned a last chance story about a typical family Christmas - his family. He goes home to his recently widowed mother, an eccentric grandmother, mad uncle and siblings and finds plenty to write about as their secrets and problems emerge.

The set was excellent, with plenty of furniture, props and Christmas decorations to make it look homely. I especially liked the Christmas tree that was slowly decorated during the play; a lovely touch.

David, as Journalist Carl, gave a very natural performance. He interacted well with his various family members and delivered his lines with an easy confidence. His Mum was played by Sara, who was excellent as the ever optimistic, cheerful lady. She kept the dialogue flowing and was good at ad libbing when required. Lisa as the tough, no nonsense Grandma had great characterisation and made the most of her funny dialogue. She had some great one liners and excellent comic timing. Very well done. Michael the doctor and older brother of Carl was played by Jason. He handled this self absorbed character well although was a little slow in his dialogue delivery at times. Tina, who played Jill, Michael’s trophy wife, had a good energy and really lifted the play when she arrived. She showed the character’s emotional side well and was very funny when she translated Grandma’s crazy sayings. Emmalyne as Stacy, the younger sister, gave a considered performance as this unassuming and quite private person. Clive had a good energy playing the fun loving, larger than life Uncle Bob. 

As Act 2 progresses we start to see the characters open up about their lives and things become a bit more serious. This was handled well on the whole. Although the dialogue stumbled a bit at times, they managed to get back to the text quickly. Direction was strong with a good flow around the set. The dialogue between the three siblings would have benefitted from being a little pacier, so they could bounce off each other in the way that siblings often do. It was also difficult for the family dynamics to work when the Grandma looked so much younger than her daughter and grandson. That said, it was a really entertaining evening with lots of good humour and a very relatable story that made us all go home feeling thoroughly Christmassy. Congratulations to all involved. 

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