O.C. THEATER REVIEW : A Literary Interpretation of Christmas

ORANGE — What is the spirit of Christmas?

The winter solstice was, in pre-Christian days, a time to celebrate survival through the harsh season, to savor the fruits of a good harvest, and a signal that a time of rebirth was soon to come. The early Christians felt it was the proper time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

That’s the spirit of Shakespeare Orange County’s “A Shakespearean Christmas” at Chapman University’s Waltmar Theatre. Although the Christmas we know today was practically invented in the 19th Century by Charles Dickens, the production also celebrates its antecedents.

One of those is described in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s recall, in the late 18th Century, of “a strange custom” he saw in Germany, when decorations were put up, gifts secretly wrapped, and the warmth of love almost outshone the blazing fire in the family hearth. The custom finally crossed the channel half a century later.

But this second annual “Shakespearean Christmas” is not a history lesson. It’s a joyous, sometimes giddy, sometimes melancholy look at many of the facets that give shape to the holiday season, from its spiritual and social bases to latter-day commercialism, as in Ogden Nash’s witty bah-humbug verse “Santa Go Home.”

Of course, being a Shakespearean company, much of the insight is the Bard’s, his wise glances at love, at generosity, at humility.

There is foremost his “Twelfth Night,” which was written as a set piece for a gentlemen’s social on the 12th night of Christmas, Jan. 6.

Some of the material will be familiar to audiences that saw last year’s show. Blissfully repeated is the evening’s high point: the silly and sodden ride of the wassailers (with a designated coachman) to their Pickwickian Christmas revels. There is also much that is new. It all bears repeating.

The familiar and obscure music (arranged and directed by Daniel Bryan Cartmell and Chuck Estes) and the snippets of holiday literature (compiled and directed by Kamella Tate, Michael Nehring and the Midwinter Company)--mixed with a great deal of humor and not a few outrageous gags--are all tinged with a soft glow, like embers in a holiday fire, crisp like a fresh winter breeze.

You can almost smell the fir needles and roasting chestnuts, the mincemeat and plum soup of many decades past.

The eight members of the company obviously take great relish in sharing the material, which they do with expert delicacy and precision. Their singing has the sound of carolers present and sometimes long past, and they almost have more fun than the audience with their second annual “act-along” of “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

* “A Shakespearean Christmas: A Midwinter Night’s Dream,” Chapman University’s Waltmar Theatre, 310 E. Palm St., Orange. Tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m., Sunday, 3 p.m. Ends Wednesday. $16-$20. (714) 744-7016. Running time: 1 hours, 35 minutes. A Shakespeare Orange County production. Conceived and directed by Kamella Tate, Michael Nehring and the Midwinter Company. With Daniel Bryan Cartmell, Christopher Duval, John-Frederick Jones, Elizabeth Maher, Michael Nehring, Carl Reggiardo, Kamella Tate, Deborah Wissink. Music arranged and directed by Daniel Bryan Cartmell and Chuck Estes. Set decoration: Suzie Goff. Costume coordination: Daron L. Sorg. Lighting design: David Darwin. Stage manager: Allison Francis.