Roadworks Productions
at the Chicago Cultural Center, studio theater
78 E. Washington (enter at 77 E. Randolph)
Through December 31
This one-man show, based on three humorous short stories written by WBEZ commentator David Sedaris, is in its third consecutive Christmastime run. Santaland’s star, Lance Baker (who was in the show in 1998 but skipped last year), has the challenging job of portraying three vastly different characters in rapid succession.
The performance opens with a wide-eyed theater critic, dressed in tweed, sitting on a couch next to a Christmas tree. “This is Front Row Center With Thadius Bristol”, says a voice from mounted speakers. Bristol is pompous, elitist, and snide. He reviewuates performances with a bitter tongue, condemning actors and directors not only for their lack of talent, but also for their appearances (at one point he complains that he could hear the chafing of an overweight actor’s thighs). The irony here is that he’s discussing artists who are only 10 and 11 years old. This goes on for approximately twenty minutes, without any apex or change in Bristol’s character.
In the next skit, Based on a True Story, Baker dons a slick suit and hops onto a church pulpit in Small Town, Kentucky. He’s portraying a big time t.v. producer who has traveled to the boonies to buy the story of a successful kidney transplant that was performed in a barn. The producer delivers a long plea to the audience, offering to buy them automobiles if they can convince the woman who donated her kidney, to sell him her story.
The opening sketches, which constitute the first half of Santaland Diaries, are clever spoofs of, first, theater criticism and, then, the television industry. Maintaining a balance between realism and exaggeration, Baker portrays credible characters whose idiosyncracies make them compelling (especially Thadius Bristol, who is exquisitely slimy with a barely-glimpsable insecurity). But, as impressive as Baker is, both of these skits are merely over-extended gags. The excessively sarcastic humor is trite and repetitive and it is not enough to sustain our interest.
The second half of SantaLand is the title story, based on Sedaris’ real-life experiences working as an elf at Macy’s department store. This time, Baker plays a young writer who, struggling to survive in New York City, takes a job as an elf. As Krumpet (the character’s elf name), Baker expounds on the pains of elf training, the horrors of obnoxious customers, and the varying techniques of different Santas.
This well-crafted monologue is more engaging than the others because it’s personal. Baker allows us to feel the hardship of going to a job that is humiliating and unpleasant, which is something we can all relate to. Plus, the material is interesting; It’s enjoyable to hear about the eccentric individuals who Krumpet meets in SantaLand and the absurdity that arises when hundreds of people get in line to sit on Santa’s lap. In this final sketch, both Baker and Sedaris reveal to us a bit of what is inside of them and we walk away feeling as if we have lived through the emotional spectrum of an experience that is at once painful and funny.
The SantaLand Diaries plays Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets are $15.
