Andersonville’s Bramble Arts Loft, a lovely new performance venue and art gallery in the heart of a walkable, shopable North Side neighborhood, is hosting two new seasonal shows, each across the hall from the other. Both are Christmas-themed but, tonally, they could not be more different.
Griffin Theatre’s “The House Without a Christmas Tree” is a new, small, family-friendly musical penned by Bill Massolia with music by George Howe, a local writer-composer with several other shows, mostly chamber musicals, to his credit. Many of those pieces premiered at Lifeline Theatre, which has let go its permanent artistic staffers in recent weeks; a former Lifeline artistic director, Dorothy Milne, directs for Griffin, which is returning to local production in Chicago. Others involved also have connections to Lifeline.
“The House Without a Christmas Tree” is based on the 1972 TV movie of the same name, novelized post-facto by Gail Rock. Set in fictional Clear River, Nebraska, in 1946, it’s a pleasantly predictable (and sentimental) story about a young girl, Adelaide “Addie” Mills, who laments the lack of holiday greenery in her home, a consequence of her father’s melancholy at the loss of his wife. One has a sense she might ultimately prevail. Plot-wise, it’s basically a Midwest version of “The Secret Garden.”
I imagine Griffin is going for the same retro-loving audience that enjoyed “The Christmas Schooner” on Chicago’s North Side for so many years; “The House Without a Christmas Tree,” with all respect, is not yet “Christmas Schooner.” But at around 85 minutes, it might appeal to some folks who are spending seasonal family time in family Andersonville. I especially enjoyed the engaging central performance from Julia Limoncelli as young, tree-less Addie (Scott Danielson plays her wound-tight dad). The capable young-adult performers need more of a challenge, to my mind, and the piece needs far more confidence, pace and zest, not to mention a more continuous kind of rhythm; the show tends to keep starting and stopping, rather than building to the inevitable House With a Christmas Tree.
Meanwhile, the long-time avant-gardeists TUTA are producing Thornton Wilder’s “The Long Christmas Dinner,” another short, seasonal piece, but this one with a more melancholy twinge.
Wilder, also the author of “Our Town,” was teaching at the University of Chicago when he wrote this short piece, set around a family’s Christmas dinner table but covering 90 years of comings and goings. Some readers may recall the Dan LeFranc play “The Big Meal,” memorably produced at American Theater Company in 2011 and derived from a play that continues Wilder’s lifelong interest in how we get so caught up in the minutiae of life that we pay too little attention to its transience. Before we know it, the people around our familial table are changing and loved ones are gone. “The Long Christmas Dinner” also inspired a famous scene in “Citizen Kane.”
This rather wacky and intermittently overplayed new production doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with Wilder’s theme and injects a kind of jokey sensibility; I was never entirely sure whether director Jacqueline Stone was poking fun at holiday convention or trying to conform to one of them; namely, the holiday show. The result lacks clarity of purpose. I think a more truthful and credible style always is the best match for Wilder’s absurdism. (Lincoln Center Theater had a similar problem some two years ago with “The Skin of Our Teeth.”)
That said, plenty in the small crowd appeared tickled by the off-beat vibe and, for sure, the show is likely to make you rethink some holiday interactions. There also are some intriguingly lively performances to enjoy and you’re back out on the street within the hour, although the Bramble is so lovely, you might not want to leave.
“The House Without a Christmas Tree” (2.5 stars) plays through Dec. 29; tickets $43 at 872-529-0657 and giffintheatre.com. “The Long Christmas Dinner” (2.5 stars) plays through Dec. 29; tickets $23-63 at www.tutatheatre.org. Both shows are staged at the Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
