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Dec. 20, 2013
An active “silent night”
Wild and funny Hotel Bethlehem is at Firehall.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Ruby Slippers Theatre’s production of Hotel Bethlehem is over before you know it. Anachronisms, deep thoughts from the mouths of not-so-deep thinkers, and lots of action keep your attention drawn and, while you won’t be laughing at everything playwright Drew McCreadie has invented in this irreverent look at the foundation myth of Christmas, there is much at which to laugh in this production – and even the odd thing about which to think after it’s over.
The script and setting – an inn, the only inn, in all of Bethlehem – are along the lines of a Fawlty Towers episode. Joshua the innkeeper has several proverbial fires to put out on the night of Dec. 24, including convincing two Roman soldiers that there is a Jewish holiday of forgetfulness called Rosh Kosh b’Gosh (or something along those lines) otherwise Joshua will be crucified for infidelity (the soldiers caught him with his mistress), finding space for the overflow of guests (including Joseph and Mary, the Three Wise Men, and others), and making sure that the census-taker doesn’t find out that his establishment has many more than the six rooms of an inn (otherwise, it’d be a hotel, and there would be more taxes to pay).
John Murphy as Joshua wholeheartedly and unabashedly channels John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty. Murphy is fantastic at the quick, witty dialogue, but some of the physical humor is overacted, and it would have been nice to see more variation in how the innkeeper role was played, a little more Murphy than Cleese in parts at least, because Murphy is a talented actor and has his own quirky mannerisms and affects to offer.
The duos are the highlight of this play, from Murphy as Joshua and Jewish community member Gili Roskies (holding her own in the otherwise all-male cast) as his mistress, the “virgin” Mary; to Sean McQuillan and Byron Noble as the Roman guards whose philosophical-sounding conversations are hilarious in their stupidity; to Scott Bellis and Alex Diakun as the shepherds whose stupid-sounding conversations are quite philosophical, and whose efforts to provide a water birth for their sheep Mary, who will bear a/the lamb of God, is pure fun; to Stephen Beaver as King Caspar (“the friendly one”) and Dustin Freeland as King Melchior, who are just the right amount of silly. (The role of the third king,
Balthazar, is well-played by Tim W. Carlson, but the sleepwalking character is one McCreadie could have forgone.) Rounding out the cast are Alvin Sanders as the myopic census-taker, and Kris Novak as Joseph, whose pregnant wife, the Virgin Mary, we never see.
Hotel Bethlehem – which is back for the third time because of its popularity – runs at the Firehall Arts Centre until Dec. 22. For more information, visit firehallartscentre.ca/onstage/hotel-bethlehem-2.
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