Writers: Seeta Wrightson and Leon Fleming
Director: Cheryl Martin
Sadly the second half of Red Ladder’s double bill at Wakefield Exchange, with the same cast, but largely different creative team, proved something of a disappointment. Billed as “an honest Christmas story”, it doesn’t seem all that sure of what tone to adopt and the serious message of being yourself, no matter what, doesn’t really register before the final impossibly (and deliberately) discordant Silent Night rounds the whole thing off.
Michael (Charles Doherty) and Red (Roo Arwen) work as seasonal labour in the grotto of a garden centre: he is a grossly grumpy Santa and she is his irrepressible Elf. It’s Christmas Eve, the last day at work, and both are looking forward to the expected bonus, but Katherine, the manager, announces on the PA that only one department will receive the bonus – and that will be decided on visitor reaction.
By now Rani (Maryam Ali) has joined the team as a Christmas Tree for the last day, an Accountancy student sampling the different departments as an intern and the three of them decide that they are going to pull out all the stops and win the bonus. By the first break Michael is exhausted by a whole session of being jolly, but then the whole thing goes awry. Hearing that the cafe is ahead in visitor votes, Michael sets off to sabotage their operation. From this one thing builds to another and the garden centre ends up awash with water, with rioting customers on the march – so no bonus for anyone! All the comic drama, incidentally, takes place offstage: what exactly deprives Santa Claus of his costume, piece by piece, is a matter for speculation!
In the middle of all this the three work out their own, mostly financial problems. Michael has preposterously overspent on his daughter’s marriage and the debt collectors are due that evening. Red works at three jobs to make ends meet, but all that matters to her is her son Tyler and she has bought him a hugely expensive present which in the mayhem gets destroyed. Rani is a victim of a very traditional Indian family, studies Accountancy because her father demands it and as a female is bullied by her brother. She is the one who makes a big change, deciding to switch courses and leave her brother to do his own fetching and carrying.
The cast work hard (often too hard) to make up for the lack of actual on-stage farcical action. Roo Arwen is the most sympathetic and convincing, Charles Doherty is a typically sour Santa, but Maryam Ali’s furious mugging and high-decibel speech soon wear thin. Director Cheryl Martin obviously sees a need to compensate for Seeta Wrightson and Leon Fleming’s rather thin script. The one cast member to make a real impact is unseen: Kathryn Hanke, the voice of Katherine, who projects a smug corporate calmness that gradually disintegrates in the chaos around her. And she gets an out-of-proportion share of the good lines.
It’s all smartly and slickly delivered, but it amounts to rather less than your typical Red Ladder offering.
Reviewed on 15th December 2025. Touring to Gosforth and Huddersfield.
