James Rayfield is one of the most respected theater professionals in the Tampa Bay area. As an acting teacher for many years at the Blake High School of the Performing Arts, he educated and inspired some of the best performers still in the region and others who have moved on to bigger cities for bigger prizes. As a producer, he’s one of the forces behind the new Revolve Theatre Company, and the artistic director of the Young Dramatists’ Project at Gorilla Theatre. He’s a director too: of full productions and of dramas in the Gorilla Reading Series (full disclosure: over the years he’s directed two of my own plays there).
And he’s a successful playwright, mostly of plays for high school audiences — eight of which have been published. His influence is everywhere: it seems that every few months I meet more young people who want to talk about “Mr. Rayfield” and his powerful effect on their lives. He’s a precious local resource whose influence has been extensive. Now his adult play Christmas Stopping is playing at Gorilla, and it’s a pleasant but not very memorable experience.
The main character is Grant, a psychiatrist who has decided to keep Christmas out of his family’s life, and who is writing a book called Christmas: Silent Night or Silent Killer? Grant’s son Baxter is a community college Don Juan who always breaks up with his many girlfriends just before the holidays, and Grant’s daughter Meredith is a 24-year-old college student who still believes in Santa Claus. Finally, there’s Grant’s wife Alice, who just wants to keep her family intact, and to buy the occasional Christmas present when she likes. Everything gets moving when Grant hears the first “tinkle” of Christmas — some silver bells apparently rung to set off a shopping stampede — and Baxter hurriedly tries to get his break-ups underway. When Meredith comes home from a shopping excursion, Grant resolves to break the news to her that the Fat Bearded One is just a fantasy, and when Alice buys a Christmas trifle, Grant objects indignantly. Eventually, Christmas profiteers lay siege to Grant’s house, and surprises turn up from the world of Dickens and hip-hop.
Rayfield sprinkles his comedy with clever phrases and acronyms, but his distaste for the commercialism of the season and the clinical depressions it spawns are so familiar to Americans that we in the audience don’t feel we’re being introduced to any new concepts. It’s also difficult to believe that 24-year-old Meredith believes in Santa Claus, and Baxter’s tactics with his five girlfriends seem most relevant to a teenaged audience.
In other words, the play doesn’t offer much in the way of real suspense, though it does show a lively constancy of visual invention. And the acting is strong: Alvin Jenkins as Grant is consistently maniacal in his drive to “de-Santa-tize” his life, and Jessica Alexander as wife Alice shows an emotional range from utterly silly to exceedingly serious. Chris Jackson throws himself into the role of Baxter with his usual verve, and Lauren Allison as Meredith is notably sincere when she speaks of the “dinosaur shoes” that she’s expecting this year from Santa.
Rayfield’s direction is top-notch, and Scott Cooper’s set of a middle-class living room is one of the most convincing I’ve ever seen at the Gorilla. But as charming as the piece is, it feels distinctly minor, and certainly doesn’t offer any real epiphanies. Still, keep your eyes on James Rayfield: Bay area theater wouldn’t be the same without him.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2010.
