WNY Theater: Eight holiday plays on one stage through this weekend

By Bella Poynton

If you’re interested in seeing something upbeat, funny and full of holiday cheer this season, you are in luck. Concrete Christmas, playing for one more week only at ART of WNY, is a heartwarming holiday offering that gives Buffalo another option beyond concerts and A Christmas Carol. The production features eight short plays by local Western New York playwrights and is joyfully directed by Catherine Burkhart and Mariangela Mercurio.

Before the first play, we are serenaded with Christmas tunes and introduced to our narrator, Busker, played with warmth and gusto by Billy Horn. He’s with us throughout the whole show, plays guitar, and seems just a bit magical. Perhaps he’s a Santa Claus of sorts, bringing songs instead of presents? We begin outside the stoop or alleyway of a Buffalo apartment building, complete with concrete surroundings, a dumpster and beautiful graffiti, simple but stylishly rendered by Yianna Russo. Although the actors convincingly play the cold, I found the set itself warm and homey. It made me feel a little nostalgic for the city, which I suspect is exactly the point.

The evening opens with Mike Fanelli’s It’s a Malignant Life, in which Nan (Jo O’Donnell),  a down on her luck saleswoman, roasts magical chestnuts that inflict pain on smarmy landlords, Skip (John Kehoe) and Buzz (Devin Klumpp.) Fanelli crafts a morality play in just 10 minutes, suggesting that the chestnuts will stop causing harm only once the landlords learn to feel empathy for others. It’s a satisfying and spirited way to begin the night.

Next is Donna Hoke’s Make It Last, which follows an anxious couple, Avery (Shelby McNulty-DeCaro) and Brock (Nick Winger) nervously preparing for their in-laws’ Christmas visit. Sue Ellen (Suzanne Hibbard) and Manfred (Akshat Sharma) are hilarious as the visiting parents, especially the mother, who takes so long to unwrap each individual gift that entire days seem to pass in the process. This is classic Hoke: quirky characters, heightened idiosyncrasies and plenty of laughs. A special shoutout to Sharma, who steals several moments with his deadpan delivery as the quiet dad who simply goes along with his overbearing wife.

The third piece, I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Billy Horn and Rosemarie Lorenti, features Jo O’Donnell as Angel, a young woman whose wallet is stolen, leaving her vulnerable to ICE agents and potential deportation on Christmas. This was one of the emotionally rich offerings of the evening, capturing the pain and struggle of not feeling like anywhere is truly home. Thankfully, a sergeant, played by Kehoe, decides to release Angel from ICE custody, not only in the spirit of the season, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Next is Matthew LaChiusa’s I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, a comic monologue deftly delivered by Jay Byron. Lexi, a troubled young woman recounts her childhood trauma involving Santa Claus; instead of merely seeing Mommy and Santa kissing, she saw much more… and has never quite recovered! Who knew Santa was such a stud? Good thing Busker is there to talk her through it. It’s a clever premise with excellent comedic timing.

Act Two opens with Winter Tan, Summer Plan by Camilla Maxwell, which follows two couples returning home to Buffalo for Christmas after a tropical vacation. Everyone but Jay (again played by Sharma) is miserably sunburned and searching for relief. Sharma once more shines, delivering pointed, intellectual and arrogantly useless facts that drive his sunburnt friends a little crazy.

The next interlude, No-Kings by Justin Karcher, features Sharma as a disgruntled playwright (perhaps a self-insert for the writer) as he navigates artistic and existential frustration with the help of Busker. He recounts a recent interaction involving a politically opposed bodega cashier, played by Hibbard, and how he learned to empathize with her. His line, “How would we know about all the miracles if we had no musicians or artists to tell us about them?” landed as one of my favorite moments of the evening.

The emotional heart of the night arrives in the form of Mark C. Lloyd’s Two Days Before Christmas. Andrew Zuccari plays the ICE agent from Act One, now encountering an apparition of his deceased father (Kehoe), who died two days before Christmas years earlier. Zuccari’s character still carries anger over being abandoned, but his father insists that his son is capable of surviving hardship while remaining kind and gentle. This play provides the evening’s emotional core, tracing the agent’s journey from indifference in Act One to a deeper understanding of empathy.

The final play, Manger Scene of the Crime by J. Snodgrass, is a delightfully complex comedy about an unlikely couple trying to create a “fertile” environment for their future. Elaine, hilariously played by McNulty-DeCaro, wants to get pregnant and has stolen the baby Jesus from a nearby manger scene, convinced it holds lucky fertility powers. Her husband Lane, a besotted but hesitant Nick Winter, worries, reasonably, that they might be arrested for their robbery. The play is both funny and sweet, while also exploring how two people with vastly different political beliefs can come together around a shared goal.

RELATED MEDIA: Playwrights Donna Hoke, Justin Karcher and J.Snodgrass discuss what inspired their work, thoughts on Christmas traditions and seeking new “dark corners of the soul.”

Themes of kindness, empathy and cooperation run throughout Concrete Christmas. I found myself completely smitten with the production, the plays and the ensemble. Everyone knows I’m a strong advocate for new work, but this production is a wonderful reminder that new plays can also come in the form of holiday shows! ART has done the difficult work of assembling an engaging new Christmas offering and succeeds in giving Buffalo something truly festive.

Concrete Holiday will be on stage tonight (Wednesday, Dec. 17) at 7:30 p.m., with subsequent performances Thursday and Friday (Dec. 18 and 19) at 7:30 and Saturday (Dec. 20) at 5 p.m.

Performances are at the Compass Performing Arts Factory, home of American Repertory Theater of WNY, located on 545 Elmwood Ave. For more information, visit https://www.artofwny.org.  

Dr. Bella Poynton is a playwright, dramaturg, actor and theater historian from Buffalo. She teaches at SUNY Oswego.