If there were ever any doubt as to what demographic “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” was seeking, it became clear just after the house lights dimmed. A boy, no more than 6, was clearly heard to whisper in that not-at-all-quiet way small children have, “Is that real snow, Daddy?”
The endearing, unscripted moment was a perfect lead-in for the show, adapted from a short story by Dylan Thomas, which is all about childhood whimsy, harking back to the wonder with which we once viewed a seemingly limitless world.
In its first-ever full-scale holiday production, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival is bringing that wonderment to the stage with the play, first performed in part on BBC radio in 1945. It is a beloved show, revolving around the poet’s memories of a Christmas when he was a boy. But it’s perhaps not as well-worn as some other seasonal fare, giving it a freshness despite being over half a century old.
And those for whom the poetry of Dylan Thomas is but a painful memory from English Lit 101 will be pleasantly surprised: The same poet who brought us “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” can be very funny as well. For example, the show’s first vignette has young Thomas (Orion Pilger) and his friend Jim (Victoria Capraro) armed to the teeth with snowballs, hunting cats that were “sleek and long as jaguars and horrible-whiskered, spitting and snarling.”
It’s the playful genius of Thomas’ language that truly stars in “Child’s Christmas.” And the actors and director are secure enough to allow the words to take care of themselves without a lot of unnecessary elaboration. To read Thomas on the page is one thing; to hear aloud his mad cadences and tongue-tripping joy at the sounds words make when placed near one another is astounding.
The story isn’t so much a story as it is a series of snapshots. It was a year when Thomas was 6 and it snowed for 12 days and 12 nights, or he was 12, and it snowed for six days and six nights. But really it’s about every Christmas, and the way they blend together in one’s memory.
Like Christmases past, the ensemble cast also blends together, drifting seamlessly from role to role as the show progresses under the direction of Philip C. Sneed, producing artistic director for CSF. The cast members weave the tapestry of Thomas’ childhood Swansea, variously portraying the random uncles that come out of the woodwork every year for Christmas dinner, the queasy family dog, the kooky aunts gathered around the piano singing old songs and, of course, Thomas himself, as an adult and as a child.
In one touching scene, Thomas, played for the moment by Gary Wright, silently gives his scarf to a poor boy who is huddled around a trash-can fire before heading back to his cozy house.
For the most part the cast flits through these various guises smoothly, presenting discrete, believable characters in a few short lines, most notably in Timothy Orr, Rebecca Remaly and Karyn Casl. But it is a true ensemble cast in that each actor knows when to step forward, and when to allow others the spotlight. Without smart, sensitive actors such as these, the show could easily be swallowed up by one misguided ego.
And while it is a play about childhood and for children — weighing in at a lean hour and 22 minutes doesn’t hurt — in a way, “Child’s Christmas” is aimed more subtly at adults, at our occluded view through the lens of nostalgia. As Thomas tells a young boy, today’s snow is nothing like it was back then, when it was “shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted like a dumb, numb thunderstorm of white.”
Kids these days — they don’t know how good they’ve got it.
“A Child’s Christmas in Wales”
Holiday tale. Presented by Colorado Shakespeare Festival at the University of Colorado mainstage theater, Boulder. Adapted/directed by Philip Sneed from a story by Dylan Thomas. 82 minutes. Through Dec. 24. 7 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, $10-$54. 303-492-0554,
