I have a love/hate relationship with the Christmas season.
I love the original story and its meaning, the family traditions, the heartwarming excitement of children, the way the holiday can break down barriers between strangers. I hate the way it’s been turned into yet another excuse for consumer excess — a vehicle for marketing and sales at their most exploitative.
Maybe that’s why “Miracle on 34th Street” has always been one of my favourite Christmas stories. Its message is just the way I feel: that the important things in life are intangible elements that no amount of money can buy.
Sudbury Theatre Centre’s new artistic director, Caleb Marshall, adapted the original 1947 movie screenplay and novella of “Miracle on 34th Street” for a production with Theatre New Brunswick, and wisely chose to bring that production to Sudbury for his directorial debut here.
Nearly the entire cast of the New Brunswick production has come along, one of the few exceptions being Samuel Leach Jarrett, of Sudbury, who plays two child roles in the play with energy and a good sense of comedy.
A department store Santa Claus at Macy’s in New York City of the 1940’s claims to be the real Santa Claus. But young Susan Walker has been raised by her divorced and disillusioned mother, Doris, not to believe in Santa Claus or fairy tales or even schoolyard games of imagination, reasoning that such beliefs only lead to eventual disappointment and pain.
Overturning our usual expectations of lawyers as cynical types, Fred Gailey takes on the task of overcoming Doris and Susan Walker’s unflinching practicality. Is Kris Kringle the real Santa Claus? How could it ever be proven? That quandary explodes into a full-blown court challenge, but at its core it’s about rekindling one family’s faith in those precious intangibles of life, like love and kindness.
This is a big production for STC, with far more scene changes than most, a technical challenge that’s solved in ingenious ways. Every member of the cast is solid, many playing multiple roles.
Robert Clarke brings real pizzazz to five different characters.
Sofie Mais captures the outward sophistication and inner innocence of Susan Walker.
Walter Learning as Kris Kringle isn’t the fuzzy teddy bear of a man we sometimes picture, but endearingly real and natural.
And the story depends heavily on the likability of Fred Gailey, which Kevin Hare delivers with a quality very similar to John Payne in the original movie.
This ambitious production does full justice to a story that never loses its charm, and a message that never loses its importance. It’ll be a highlight of your family’s Christmas season.
“Miracle on 34th” Street plays at the Sudbury Theatre Centre through Dec. 14. The box office number is 705-674-8381 x21 or go online to www.sudburytheatre.ca.
Scott Overton is the author of the thriller Dead Air. He writes theatre reviews for Northern Life.
