Yuletide Cheers: ‘The Santaland Diaries’ in Lenox

 

David Begelman, Theater Critic

 

David Sedaris is no stranger to a wide readership, not to mention radio and theater audiences hankering for his version of belly laughs galore. A popular voice on the NPR radio series, “This American Life,” Sedaris has authored written works like “Holidays on Ice,” “Naked,” “Barrel Fever,” and more.

He has also co-authored a number of plays with his sister, Amy. Brother and sister Sedaris, by their own admission, come from a family that takes disfunctionality to new levels of grandeur. Never you mind. He is a shoe-in for a revered place in the pantheon of outstanding American humorists. His hilarious monologue about his own escapade as an “elf” hired by Macy’s Department Store is by now a staple in yuletide productions across the land.

Shakespeare & Company’s new production of the humorist’s “Santaland Diaries” is hardly in a minimalist mode. In his days as a struggling young actor, Sedaris recalls his stint as an elf with the disarming moniker of “Crumpet.”. Except in this production he is a fortyish man, relating his past elfin gig in a plush apartment with upscale accommodations including a baby grand piano, and a view of the Manhattan skyline that any hedge fund manager would envy.

“Crumpet” in the current show has evidently come into his own later on in life. But is this what Sedaris intended? After all, the monologue as written is brimming with the kind of sardonic humor that only a put-upon might level at his corporate bosses at Macy’s who have the gall to make him play the fool.

When “Crumpet” (the ebullient Peter Davenport) sheds his staid apparel to reveal his “green velvet knickers, forest-green velvet smock, and a perky little hat decorated with spangles,” the description was intended to be more like a complaint than a cute aside.  “It doesn’t get any worse than this,” says Crumpet, whose satirical remarks about everything are in the Swiftian mode; not simply a tongue-in-cheek badinage about the past.

Davenport, despite his unquestionable ability for portraying many facets of Crumpet’s experiences as a put-upon hireling, loses out on the darker, and more ironic, aspect of the character. Director Tony Simotes, the newly appointed artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, has opted for a different take on “Crumpet.” It is not one this reviewer senses is true to the Sedaris intent.

Crumpet’s observations sometimes cut to a wrenching emotional core, and the counterpart between them and his humorous dialogue is why the monologue is so arresting.

During yuletide, “Parents have an idea of a world that they cannot make work for them;” a lad who visits Santa Claus at Macy’s voices the poignant wish his dead father were alive and for a set of teenage mutant ninja turtles, or “It doesn’t get any worse than this.” Hardly the sentiments of an elf who feels all’s right with the world, or that humor has no darker underbelly.

Shakespeare & Company’s wish to cut to the comic chase in this production perhaps overlooked the downside aspect of “Santaland Diaries” that makes it such compelling fare.

“Santaland Diaries” runs until Dec. 30 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, 70 Kemble St., Lenox, Mass. Performances are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Saturday matinees on Dec. 11 and 18 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16-$48, and can be purchased by calling the box office at 413-637-3353, or contacting www.shakespeare.org,