A holiday favourite is making its way to the live stage as Persephone Theatre prepares its production of the adaptation of 1980s film A Christmas Story.
The plot is largely the same as the beloved movie. The story follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, narrated by his adult self, through a series of vignettes and hijinks as his younger self prepares for Christmas and wishes for the gift he wants most but everyone tells him is too dangerous — a Red Ryder BB gun.
Heather Cant, the artistic director of Persephone Theatre and the director of this show, said the stage version of the show still captures all the magic of the movie — and then some.
“A Christmas Story has two attractive draws for me. One is nostalgia… I love the way the stage adaptation plays with memory and the nostalgia the characters have for their youth and family,” she said. “The second part is the kids. It’s a fantastic play to showcase our young talent.”
In addition to the family appeal of the show itself, there’s an extra layer of family fun to the cast as well. The show features 14 youth cast members from within Saskatchewan and Persephone Theatre’s Young Company, including a double-casting of the young Ralphie with locals Kade Adams and Clark Willoughby.
In fact, most of the cast and production team is local with only a couple exceptions (lighting designer Whittyn Jason, for example, is from Edmonton). It’ll be helpful to be close to home for the holidays, as the run of the show has already been held over to Dec. 28 due to popular demand.
“The cast is having a great time, but it also makes it a lot of fun for audiences to experience that childhood joy onstage,” Cant said.
For fans of the movie, many of those nostalgic elements are still going to be there: the BB gun, the infamous leg lamp, the tongue sticking to the icy cold flagpole and more, brought to life in a new way on the stage.
But as Cant puts it, one of the many benefits of the stage version of the show is that it’s simply “funnier” — while the movie captures the drama of some moments better, Cant said the stage adaptation (and the cast of this production) did a better job injecting each scene with the fun and absurdity of some of the story’s most well-known moments.
And it doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen the movie before coming to Persephone’s production of A Christmas Story. Whether you’re finding nostalgia in the old film itself, or in the childhood wonder of the Christmas season that’s captured by the young cast, Cant said there’s something for every audience member to enjoy this holiday season.
“Sometimes I think we need to be reminded about the joy around this time of year,” she said. “There’s a lot going on in the world and in peoples’ lives, but… at the core of the holiday spirit is that family connection and community connection, and I feel like this play is emblematic of that Saskatoon community.”
A Christmas Story has been held over at Persephone Theatre until Dec. 28. Tickets can be purchased at persephonetheatre.org.
