Who is Christmas, the lord

We opened Soiree Dada: Schmuckt die Hallen last night. It was amazing. The show went so well, the cast was excellent, and the 100+ audience was really into the show.

I have some friends who I know are either not fans of DADA, or just cautious about it. I really encourage you to try this show out. I think it is a lot more accessible than the past two DADA shows we've had (the other two I worked on).

One of the things the cast has struggled with in preparing this show is, how do you do DADA right now? DADA is about rebelling against the current power structure, about examining society and politics to encourage change. What change could be bigger than the switch from Bush to Obama? So in this climate of hope and optimism, where does DADA fit?

We're performing this show at the DCA's Storefront Theater, and to get the space, we had to agree to do a Christmas show. So this is a show where DADA takes on Christmas, rather than the political climate. There is very little politics in this show. The main focus is on the family and societal traditions that so many of us participate in during the holidays, (gift-exchanges, guilt, Christmas dinner, Santa, carols, stories and "What's his face") with the show being loosely framed like the DADAs are a family coming home for Christmas dinner. And in an exaggerated way, the DADAs are probably very similar to your family. There's the cousin that doesn't quite fit in; your overbearing grandfather, full of his own opinions; the sensitive brother that inevitably cries; the smart-ass troublemaker; your older sister who is depressed and probably on drugs; your crazy uncle; the favorite little sister who finally gets put in her place; and of course the matriarch who wants everyone to just act like a normal family for one damn night.

One of the audience members who left the show said that SdH represented Christmas as it really is, better than any Christmas show she'd ever seen. Sad, but true, because the traditions of Christmas have destroyed the purpose of Christmas. Gift-giving is a rigourous exercise or an obligation, rather than a joy. Family dinners are an interrogation to be endured, rather than a time of celebration. Christmas movies and shows so often create this saccarine sweet utopia, that rarely exists in the real world we live in, where kids get yanked between divorced parents, and guilt is laid when married children have to leave to spend time with the spouse's family, and we just "buy a gift card already" rather than picking out the perfect gift.

So this show works to deconstruct and examine this farce that we've created for ourselves and ask why we go through it year after year.

The title of this post will make sense after you see the show.