What to do the night after hosting your festive annual party with friends visiting from out of town? Our thought was to take in A Child’s Christmas in Wales at the Irish Rep. This is the third of five holiday themed shows I plan to see this month. (Too many? Thankfully not yet but the biggest one – with the highest kicks – is fast approaching.) This piece is based on a famous story by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The prose imagines idyllic Christmas memories while growing up as a young boy. Adapted and directed by co-founder Charlotte Moore, the tone is sweet and the nostalgia is unaffected. Mr. Thomas summoned up an idealized world of childhood past. “It was snowing. It was always snowing on Christmas.”
What I did not expect to find while donning my own romanticized New York holiday lenses was the historical significance of this particular story. Mr. Thomas had worked with the BBC since 1937 telling stories on the radio to supplement his income as a poet. In 1945, a producer suggested a talk entitled “Memories of Christmas.” A later enhancement was published in 1950 as “A Child’s Memories of a Christmas in Wales” by Harper’s Bazaar. Two years later a fledgling company persuaded him to make a recorded album of five poems. When considering what to put on the B-side (while we are waxing nostalgic), Mr. Thomas selected this Christmas story.
The album sold modestly at first and the author died a year later. A posthumous book created the current title. The story went on to become one of his most beloved and launched Caedmon into becoming a successful company, later acquired as a label for HarperCollins Audio. In 2008, the original 1952 recording was selected for the United States National Recording Registry since it was “credited as having launched the audiobook industry in the United States.” Who knew an off-Broadway holiday offering would result in learning that fun fact?
A Child’s Christmas in Wales is a fairly short story. In this show, the words have been supplemented with more than a dozen songs from the traditional (“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”) to those sung in Welsh (“Calon Lan”) to original compositions by the adapter, Ms. Moore (“Walking in the Snow”). Everything goes down nice and easy with the simplicity of a childlike dream. The section “Aunts and Uncles Come to Dinner” was a particular hoot.
Nicholas Barasch (She Loves Me) portrayed the author and narrator. The performance was remarkable for its depiction of a child’s wonder and joy, wrapped up in a lightly contained bundle of youthful exuberance. Completely committed with nary a hint of winking, the cast nicely rounded out the production with their storytelling and singing. I have to note that the use of a Welsh accent seemed strictly optional which came across as odd given the very focused onstage tone. At eighty minutes, A Child’s Christmas in Wales did not overextend its welcome – unlike your aunt may do after consuming the parsnip wine on Christmas Day.