Two loners and a tree lot
Lunchbox takes a funny look at the holidays
Published December 11, 2008  by Kathleen Renne

DETAILS

The Christmas Tree by Lunchbox Theatre

Monday, November 24 - Saturday, December 20 Monday, November 24 - Saturday, December 20

The Christmas Tree, now on at Lunchbox Theatre, is a delightful holiday play for adults: seasonal, funny, sugary, but with a sufficient sprinkling of the serious. The play was written by Canadian Norm Foster, well-known for his comedies and one of the most produced playwrights in the country. Lunchbox artistic director Martin Fishman, who also directs the production, commissioned the play as Lunchbox’s Christmas offering.

The Christmas Tree tells the story of two people who meet in a tree lot on Christmas Eve. There’s only one scrawny conifer left, and they argue over who should get to take it home. Of course, each invents extravagant tales of woe to try and convince the other of their need for the tree. Neither wants to reveal the real reason they are there: because they are both alone on Christmas Eve and trying to capture a bit of lost Christmas spirit.

Adding to the hilarity is that each character is the opposite of the other. Heather Lea MacCallum takes on the role of Sonja, complete with expensive boots and Holt Renfrew shopping bag, while Christopher Hunt plays Daniel, a blue-collar Joe wearing a backwards cap and carrying a box of Timbits.

The most enjoyable moments of the production are the rapid-fire insults the characters throw at each other, and the perceptive observations about the differences between male and female thought processes.

In one instance, Daniel says that the possibility of “hooking up” with every attractive woman is what keeps men going. Sonja, on the other hand, tells him the first thing women think when meeting a man is, “I hope he doesn’t hit on me, because I hate being hit on.”

The dialogue is fast and furious, and keeps the show moving and the laughs coming. For example, Sonja tries to distract Daniel, so she can make a run for it with the tree, by telling him his fly is undone. Without missing a beat, he replies, “It’s always that way.”

The show is performed in-the-round, with audience members seated on all sides. The characters move around enough that I wasn’t subject to anyone’s back for any length of time.

However, my only criticism of the production is with some of the actors’ onstage wanderings. It seems like they look for any excuse to create some action by hanging shiny garlands on the tree and then removing them a short while later, or by putting food items in a stocking to place under the tree and then emptying the stocking moments later. While I did find it somewhat distracting, those unnecessary movements didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the production.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Christmas play without the two of them finding the holiday spirit in the end, and this play delivers on this tested formula.

On November 27th’s edition of CBC Calgary Radio’s “The Homestrech” Sharon Pollock offered up her review of the The Christmas Tree in her weekly installment of Pollock on Plays.

Click here to listen (Real Audio)

Media Release
For Immediate Release – December 5, 2008

Calgary, AB – Norm Foster, Canada’s most produced playwright and author of The Christmas Tree, is pleased to announce his newest play – currently running at Lunchbox Theatre – will be published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2009.

The Christmas Tree will be included in a compilation volume of Foster’s holiday plays, including: Dear Santa, Bob’s Your Elf, and Ethan Claymore. Says Foster of his latest play’s inclusion, “I am thrilled that The Christmas Tree will round out this volume. It might just be my favourite of the bunch!”

The world premiere of The Christmas Tree, running until December 20, and has been playing to sold out houses. Only a few tickets remain to performances in the last two weeks of the run.

“I wanted to write a different Christmas story,” says Foster of The Christmas Tree. “It’s about two people who are alone at Christmas but don’t want to admit it. Christmas can be a real high for those who are going through good times and a real low for those who are suffering through bad times. I was trying to walk that fine line between the two. On Christmas Eve, these two people find a glimmer of hope in their otherwise dark lives.” Foster continues, “The spirit of Christmas to me is a feeling of romanticism. It always has been. There is something about Christmas that evokes emotions of all kinds. Love is a stronger love at Christmas. Despair, a more intense despair. There are hundreds of Christmas stories out there for children. The Christmas Tree is a Christmas story for adults.”

The charming story of The Christmas Tree is this: A tree lot. Christmas Eve. One man. One woman. One tree. Who should get it? Each gives reasons through tales of woe as to why they are more deserving of the tree and each seems unmoved by the other’s predicament. The Christmas Tree is filled with laughs, heartache, and good old-fashioned Christmas spirit.

This new production features Christopher Hunt and Heather Lea MacCallum, is directed by Lunchbox Theatre’s artistic director Martin Fishman, and designed by Sandi Somers and Shauna Breslawski, with stage-management by Rikki Schlosser and Alec McCauley. The Christmas Tree runs November 24 to December 20, Monday to Saturday at 12:10pm with ‘Happy Hour’ performances Friday at 6:10pm.

For more information or to request an interview:
DJ Kelly
Marketing and Communications
Lunchbox Theatre
403 265 4292 x 229
dj.kelly@lunchboxtheatre.com

Sun, November 30, 2008

Tale of tree resonates with actress

UPDATED: 2008-11-30 02:36:23 MST

By LOUIS HOBSON

In Lunchbox Theatre’s The Christmas Tree, Heather Lea MacCallum plays a woman determined to own the last tree in a city lot on Christmas Eve.

The Norm Foster comedy is directed by MacCallum’s husband, Martin Fishman, Lunchbox artistic director.

Before this week’s opening, MacCallum recalled another Christmas tree.

“It was at university the first year Marty and I started living together. As is the case in Norm’s play, it was Christmas Eve and I didn’t have much money, but I was determined to have a Christmas tree because Marty is Jewish and this was to be his first Christmas celebration,” says MacCallum, Fishman’s partner since 1973.

Off she went to a Christmas tree lot and bought one of the last trees. “We didn’t have a tree stand, so we stood it up in a large jar. I think together we had scraped together enough money to buy some cheap ornaments.”

MacCallum and Fishman have worked together since they met in theatre classes in Edmonton.

Their 21-year-old daughter Rebecca surprised them earlier this year when she announced she wanted to be an actress.

“Rebecca’s training has largely been in dance and she has choreographed some shows for Mount Royal’s Shakespeare in the Park, but now she’s determined to try acting. “I guess the decision shouldn’t surprise us all that much, given she was raised by an actress and a director.”

A little over a year ago, Fishman commissioned Foster to write The Christmas Tree.

“Marty was directing Norm’s play The Love List for Stage West. Norm had to fly in to replace one of the actors and it was then that Marty asked him to write a Christmas show for Lunchbox’s first season in the new theatre under the Calgary Tower.”

The Christmas Tree is one of 20 Foster plays currently in production. His other holiday comedy Dear Santa is playing in seven cities in Canada.

Vying for the last tree on the lot on Christmas Eve turns out to be a verbal joust for two lonely people who just can’t seem to resist telling lies when it comes to revealing the truth about themselves in the new Norm Foster comedy which premiered on Tuesday at Lunchbox Theatre. Commissioned by Lunchbox artistic director Martin Fishman as this year’s Lunchbox seasonal offering, The Christmas Tree is vintage Foster –clever words that say far more than deeds, here in the case of the recently careworn but wary fashionista Sonja (Heather Lea MacCallum) and Daniel (Christopher Hunt), who has a savvy, way-of-the-world air about him. Each resorts to tall autobiographical sketches about themselves in an ongoing effort to seem more deserving of a forlorn little spruce that would seem more at home across the street in the Alberta Theatre Projects props department.

As good as the best writers of sitcoms when it comes to giving heart to their creations, Foster also demonstrates here his unerring and sophisticated ear for the kind of dialogue that has a cleverly funny, damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you don’t, dead-end way of coming back on itself.

Case in point: early on in this two-hander, Daniel grabs the tree only to relent under Sonja’s protestations –and propose instead that they toss for it.

When Sonja asks who’s going to call it, Daniel says he doesn’t care. But then after calling “heads,” Sonja is roundly rebuked by Daniel for first, taking the initiative and, second, an initiative that betrays motives of a personal and gender nature. (And besides, Daniel points out, didn’t she already know that heads are statistically more likely than tails?)

You can see where stuff like that is heading–and that it all wears so durably in the Fishman-directed, theatre-in-the-round Lunchbox production probably because both actors (although MacCallum seems to come dangerously close to giving it all away by bursting out in laughter, at several points) play so well off each other’s characters and their lies–and the truth behind the logic of those lies.

Review

The Christmas Tree

By Norm Foster Runs through dec. 20 at lunchbox theatre. tickets: Call 403-265-4292.

Rating 4 of five

bclark@theherald.canwest.Com

Thu, November 27, 2008

Little tree tale grows into giant sucess

UPDATED: 2008-11-27 02:42:45 MST

By LOUIS B. HOBSON, SUN MEDIA

Lunchbox Theatre’s The Christmas Tree is the kind of light-hearted comedy that puts the merry in Merry Christmas.

Written especially for Lunchbox by Canada’s master of mirth, Norm Foster, The Christmas Tree brings a pair of strangers to a lonely tree lot on Christmas Eve.

There’s only one anemic, little tree left but Daniel (Chris Hunt) and Sonja (Heather Lea MacCallum ) engage in a duel to see who will drag it home.

Their weapons of choice are heart-wrenching stories of why each deserves the tree more than the other.

No one is fooled by the tales of woe, least of all the audience members who erupt into spontaneous laughter that runs the gamut from derision to approval.

Foster is a keen observer of human nature which ensures there’s as much intelligence as there is wit in his play.

A self-styled Casanova, Daniel hopes he might warm up his apartment with more than the tree if he plays his cards right.

The problem is he uses all the wrong moves, but Hunt makes him such a likable lout, you keep hoping he’ll succeed despite his clumsy efforts.

Sonja’s defence is to stop Daniel cold in his tracks which MacCallum does by coating her rebuttles and remarks in biting sarcasm.

In the hands of lesser actors this verbal jousting could be off putting, but Hunt and MacCallum make it an escalating delight.

Director Martin Fishman stages The Christmas Tree like a chess match in Sandi Somers’ simple but effective set.

—-

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

UNTIL DEC. 20

STARRING

CHRIS HUNT, HEATHER LEE MACCULLUM

Sun Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Media Release
For Immediate Release – November 20, 2008

Calgary, AB – As Lunchbox Theatre enters the Holiday Season it provides us a moment to celebrate an early present – our new home at the base of the Calgary Tower – with the World Premiere production of Norm Foster’s new holiday comedy The Christmas Tree.

The charming story of The Christmas Tree is this: A tree lot. Christmas Eve. One man. One woman. One tree. Who should get it? Each gives reasons through tales of woe as to why they are more deserving of the tree and each seems unmoved by the other’s predicament. The Christmas Tree is filled with laughs, heartache, and good old-fashioned Christmas spirit.

“I wanted to write a different Christmas story,” says playwright Norm Foster. “It’s about two people who are alone at Christmas but don’t want to admit it. Christmas can be a real high for those who are going through good times and a real low for those who are suffering through bad times. I was trying to walk that fine line between the two. On Christmas Eve, these two people find a glimmer of hope in their otherwise dark lives.” Foster continues, “The spirit of Christmas to me is a feeling of romanticism. It always has been. There is something about Christmas that evokes emotions of all kinds. Love is a stronger love at Christmas. Despair, a more intense despair. There are hundreds of Christmas stories out there for children. The Christmas Tree is a Christmas story for adults.”

This new production features Christopher Hunt and Heather Lea MacCallum, is directed by Lunchbox Theatre’s artistic director Martin Fishman, and designed by Sandi Somers and Shauna Breslawski, with stage-management by Rikki Schlosser and Alec McCauley. The Christmas Tree runs November 24 to December 20, Monday to Saturday at 12:10pm with ‘Happy Hour’ performances Friday at 6:10pm.

The world’s longest running lunchtime theatre, Lunchbox Theatre is a professional company that caters to downtown office workers over the noon-hour by producing at least six plays per year as well as the Petro-Canada Stage One new play festival and the BD&P Emerging Director Program. After 33 years, Lunchbox Theatre has recently relocated to the base of the Calgary Tower.

For more information or to request an interview:
DJ Kelly
Marketing and Communications
Lunchbox Theatre
403 265 4292 x 229
dj.kelly@lunchboxtheatre.com

We’ve finally done it! The new theatre is open, but that does not mean the hardwork is done. As you can tell from the recent posts here on this blog we’ve been doing a lot of press lately; however no one has had much time to write a new blog entry to update you on how things are going with the move into the theatre.

When the theatre opened there were a few things not completed that are now getting finished. Our new door hardware has been installed, the actual exterior doors have arrived (did you know you could have “temporary doors”?), and the exterior signage has been installed.

Probably most importantly, our Box Office has moved down to the theatre from our administrative offices on the fourth floor of Tower Centre. It’s nice to have Stephanie down there to greet all the people, but her move certainly hasn’t been without its difficulty! Apparently running a network cable - so the box office computer could have its all important access to the ticket sales database - was not possible. As a result we had to create a VPN connection and to do that we had to have a dedicated internet connection in the theatre. Telus couldn’t hook it up for over two weeks and that just wouldn’t do. Two weeks with no Box Office! Fortunately Shaw said they could do it the next day. Of course once the internet and VPN connections were in place we found that it took FOREVER for Stephanie’s computer to process a credit card. Apparently our internet connection in the upstairs office was just too slow. So now we are in the process of switching from Telus to Shaw upstairs too. Which sadly means our Online Box Office will be offline for a couple of days.

This is just one example of the trials faced when opening a new theatre. Lately, it has not been uncommon to hear the phrase “why can’t things just be easy” bellowed around the office!

The theatre itself is beautiful though. I think the theatre is “very Lunchbox”. It could have been painted all black and been a “black box theatre”, but I think the burgundy walls keep the same charm the old Bow Valley Square theatre did. Except that burgundy is better than the old purple! While A Life in the Theatre is getting a pretty good audience reaction I think the main thing audiences are noticing when attending the first show is the TONS of legroom, and the stage setup for the production - the theatre is in an alley configuration right now.

It looks like our audiences are really liking the new theatre. I just can’t wait to get everything else finished so we can enjoy it just as much too!

Finally, the doors have opened to  the Transcanada Stage in our new home at the base of the Calgary Tower. The journey to opening has been just like theatre itself: part comedy, part drama and even part farce!  But as the opening night of A Life In the Theatre began, the real reason why we went through all of this was once again clear. We produce theatre!  As obvious as that sounds, it was hard at times to remember that what all of this was for was for us  to be able to offer what Lunchbox does best to our audience in a comfortable space with flexibility and warmth.

There are far to many people to thank, but I would like to offer my appreciation to the Lunchbox staff who went through this process with dignity, humour anfd grace. Now we can roll up our sleeves and get back to doing our core business.

If you haven’t scene our little jewel of a theatre, please stop by and say hello. I am certain you will be impressed!

From all of us at Lunchbox, thanks to everyone who made this possible and worthwhile.

See you at the theatre.

Martie

CBC Radio’s Sharon Pollock reviewed A Life in the Theatre on The Homestretch this past Wednesday. She also talks about the new theatre and it’s new seating flexiblity.

CBC’s Pollock on Plays ‘A Life in the Theatre’ Review (Real Audio)