The slapstick whodunit was written by "Rhymes with Orange" cartoonist Hilary B. Price and August Company founding member Kelsey A. Flynn.
The cast of "Santacide," which will be performed Saturday at the Academy of Music in Northampton. From left: Rachel Braidman (Holly the Stable Girl) of Holyoke ; Amy Teffer (Head Elf) of Granby; Steve Angel (Milo, Seasonal help) of Easthampton; and Linda Putnam (Mrs. Claus) of Northampton"Santacide" is coming to town.
That’s right,"Santacide."
The August Company is bringing to the Academy of Music “Santacide,” the slapstick whodunit written by nationally syndicated “Rhymes with Orange” cartoonist Hilary B. Price and August Company founding member Kelsey A. Flynn.
For this update of the sold-out 2007 production at Northampton High School, the playwrights made a few changes. “Over the last four years we’ve revised it, took out the character of the original killer and now we have a new killer,” Flynn explained. “We really thought it was a great (production) but that it could be tightened up so there is more to be mined from this piece. It’s a faster, funnier, better show.”
The idea for the production grew out of one of Price’s cartoon strips in which the characters considered a play about a Santa murder but knew it would never fly as a school production.
Price pitched the idea of such a production to Flynn, whom she described as “a vibrant, funny comic” actress, and they began work on it in 2004.
The story begins on the night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature is stirring, not even Santa. He is dead, killed with a candy cane plunged into his back.
“It’s dark. We murder Santa, and everybody is culpable, even his wife,” Flynn said.
She doesn’t encourage children’s attendance at the show unless parents are prepared to discuss Santa with them first. “Santa’s going down,” she said.
The show’s message, she said, is that Santa is not “the linchpin” of the holiday season. “It’s up to us to make it be the holiday of light we hope for instead of pinning it on this persona” that exemplifies “our culture of wanting and having stuff.”
Price agreed. “We tried to think about what is the true meaning of Christmas and tried to strip down the commercial Christmas to a place of generosity and giving,” she said. “So when you leave (the show), you’re not destroyed that Santa is dead. There’s new hope on the horizon.”
Price said the end is uplifting and “encapsulates what we feel to be the non-commercial, soulful message of generosity and hope.”
Producer Liesel de Boor said the production will be “a slapstick whodunit with a sing-a-long halftime extravaganza hosted by world-renowned and local hero singer-songwriter Erin McKeown and the Cranky Carolers.”
McKeown, who lives in Conway but performs throughout the world including appearances on National Public Radio and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” was inspired by this bent Christmas tale to write her own collection of twisted Christmas carols. The pre- and halftime show will include a sing-a-long concert of these new tunes, plus a chance for the audience to send their wishes to Santa Prairie-Home-Companion-style.
The cast includes Santa’s overheated wife, reprised by Linda Putnam; seasonal elf Milo, played by Steve Angel; Head Elf of North Pole Enterprises, played by Amy Teffer; and mute stable girl Holly, played by Rachel Braidman. Sent to solve the murder at the North Pole is Detective Detective, played by Sheila Siragusa and Junior Detective Jimbo Detective, played by Mark Teffer.
Scott Braidman directs the production.
The event is “something to add to the Pantheon of holiday theater,” Flynn said, “something to offer the theater world that goes beyond Charles Dickens’ (‘A Christmas Carol’) and ‘The Nutcracker.’”
“Santacide” lasts for about 90 minutes, including the carols.