Hotel Bethlethem - A Not-So-Silent Night!

So CUTE!

Hotel Bethlehem is a must see this holiday season, especially if you want a break from the syrupy sweet rhetoric of Christmas-themed stories. It is refreshing to see a play that is funny, clever and sometimes teetering on the edge of appropriateness. The premise of the play is to tell the story behind the story, what was going on at the inn in Bethlehem the day that Jesus was born. The next 110 minutes is a fast paced, witty combination of farce and satire.

As any farce would dictate, physical humour is in attendance including the proverbial multiple entrances and exits through different doors, mistaken identities and bodies bumping into each other. The physical comedy is best done by Joshua, the innkeeper, played by John Murphy and Stephen Beaver playing King Caspar, who would rather be a Queen, the modern kind. The storyline has as its bookends a dialogue between two shepherds who contemplate the meaning of life and eventually question what is reality.

Kudos to the clever playwriting of Drew McCreadle to connect the birth of Jesus with existentialism and consciousness. The influence of the Bible and its writing is emphasized several times especially when the characters don’t understand a term or colloquial expression whose origins stem from biblical times. Nothing is sacred in this play, including the naming of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. The little drummer boy even gets dissed. Metaphors are taken literally with the result that the audience never gets to see the baby Jesus but we do get to see the lamb of God.

As can be expected in a farce, there are some jokes that are not as funny but end up adding to the crazy kinetic energy level. This play is most suited to teenagers and up. There are many sexual innuendoes and it is a tad annoying that the only female character in the play is portrayed as a sex crazed whore. As adults however we can understand the satirical elements of the stereotypical characters and enjoy the double meaning behind the script. Hotel Bethlehem reminds us all that we are responsible for our own dreams and reality and gives us a good laugh along the way.

Hotel Bethlehem is playing at The Firehall Arts Centre from now until December 22nd. See http://firehallartscentre.ca for more information.

 

By MJ Ankenman