Commentary On The Play Season's Greeting

Recently I attended The Broward college production of the play Season's Greeting, the play takes place on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. I was very skeptical going in because I was not sure if I would be walking in on a tacky Christmas play or an Alan Ayckbourn's British comedy. They had a proscenium stage with, extended Apron which very disappointed me because it was extremely small, I sat in the center of the third row and the aesthetic distance between me and the performers were close but never to the point where I was not able to see every aspect of the play.
What Is Being Attempted?
Alan Ayckbourn is an English playwright which explains why the play was presented in the British accent. It's a British comedy about a traditional
Christmas celebration of a dysfunctional family who reunites at the bunkers suburban home and everyone's secrets gets unraveled. I have read that Season's greetings was written from Ayckbourn experiences with his own family. His attempt is to connect with the readers and audience because there are many people can relate to the events that happens in the play.
The basic structure of Season's greetings is Climactic, the scenes and characters were very limited, and the exposition was not presented until very late in the play. For instance, Belinda expresses the trouble in her marriage with Neville, Pattie is unhappy and worries that Eddie doesn't want to father another child with her, Bernard is worried about his puppet show, Clive comes along and there is an instant spark between him and Belinda, they attempt to have sex, Rachel has to deal with the fact that Clive is interested in her sister, uncle Harvey mistakenly shoots Clive. Everything is squeezed into 3 scenes. The exposition gets revealed throughout the actual plot, as each character reach their breaking point. The Protagonist Belinda played by Liza Honorat was very well presented, from her bouncy pin curled, light brown wig and bright red lipstick to her modern day suburban housewife wardrobe and fine pearls, you can tell that she stood out from the other
female cast members, the costume designer Katie Valli designed each wardrobe to fit each characters social status, Neville played by Patrick O'Dea, opened scene 1 with a white sweater, pleated pants and dress shoes, which complimented Belinda's blazing red dress; both very rich colors. Unlike Eddie played by Robbie Toussaint whom is not as financially stabled as the bunkers is seen in a plaid shirt, very plain and simple, you get a sense that how he is dressed is the least of his worries. I did notice that the costume designer and makeup artist failed to present the character Phyllis, as a struggling alcoholic. I was not pleased with the heavy makeup done on the female actors, it would have been acceptable in larger theaters because of the distance between the performers and the audience but in this case the makeup artist did not consider the distance and the colors used in theatrical lights. Belinda and Pattie's makeup were excessive, the makeup artist should avoid hard lines and a little less foundation.
A few things in the play separated it from naturalism and heightened realism.
First off, Set designer was limited when it came to the amount of space available on the stage, which is understood but they were things that could have been presented differently for instance, they were no real doors, the walls were cut off, one small lamp was presented but the spotlight over the dining table did not appear to come from a natural source, also an unknown blue light seemed to be coming from the small window to the left of the stage, which would be the faults of the lighting designer. Although the lighting designer did find rhythm between the change of scene to scene, the lights would slowly fade. The lights weren't too bright; the intensity was controlled. The lighting designer often used blue lights to signify late nights and early
mornings.

Alan Ayckbourn wrote Seasons Greeting as a British comedy about a dysfunctional family who gets together during what's supposed to be the happiest time of the year, I believe the playwrights intentions were to have a deep connection with the audience but still make them laugh at the same time. In the play, I felt the cast lacked emotions and There wasn't any sense of connection between the audience and the performers which I thought was of a big importance to Alan Ayckbourn, the director is responsible for making sure that the performers understand the playwrights’ intentions and making sure that they know the emotions of the character that they are playing. I did notice that the director established a clear rhythm and pace in the production, the play wasn't moved to quickly which made everything very clear to understand, nothing was left out but nothing was dragged either. I was not pleased with the amount of time that it took them to transition from scene to scene, 2 minutes exactly, during that period of time the audience checked out, started talking, checking their phones and no curtains were used so the audience were able to witness all the movements and changes made from one scene to another.
The production failed as a comedy, if you're looking for a good laugh stay home and watch the presidential debates. The theatre space was entirely too small, I was hoping for a bigger stage and we missed out on witnessing the scene with Phyllis actually cooking, Which I found very amusing while reading the play. I was hoping that there would be a scene in the kitchen of the bunkers home. I didn't feel any connection with the performers. I did not agree with the directors’ choice to have the 15-minute intermission; 5 minutes would have been enough. The cast members wore the same makeup throughout the entire play, which was odd to see Belinda in her night gown with blazing red lipstick. At the end of the production, I was just glad that I did not have to pay for admission.