It Just Isn't Christmas Without a Jousting Werewolf...

[eregyrn]

How true that is.

Tonight being the Solstice, flos_campi and hedgies and my_tallest and I went to the Christmas Revels. While the Quebecois-themed performance this year was not precisely Christmassy (apart from a group-sing of "Les Anges dans nos Campagnes" and the Usual Revels Favorites), it was at least UPBEAT, which is close enough. (In sharp comparison to, say, the somewhat dour Scottish Revels last year.) And it inspired the following sequence of comments:

"Satan. What could be more Christmassy?"

"Frolicking skeletons. What could be more Christmassy?"

"You know, it just isn't Christmas without a Werewolf."

"Truly, it just isn't Christmas without a jousting Werewolf."

"Yeah, it just isn't Christmas without a jousting Werewolf playing baseball." (Yes, this involved a Red Sox pennant.)

"Ah, it just isn't Christmas without Napoleon."

"What says Christmas more than the Gates of Hell?"

"With skeletons?"

And yet, let me remind you -- this was definitely the MOST UPBEAT Revels we'd seen in years. And we were saying that without irony.

So here's to a happy Holidays for all of you. May the Christmas Werewolf bring you all good things. Axe-Murderer Santa says so.

Comments

[ex-hedgies507.livejournal.com]

Axe-Murderer Santa says so.

Awww... I miss axe murderer Santa. And is that the death plant behind him?

[kaijugal.livejournal.com]

*is in awe*

:D <3

[sazabhadri.livejournal.com]

*blink* *blink* Wow, I'm.... sorry I missed that. I think. No, I'm pretty sure I'm serious. This was the Quebecois Revels ? I had no idea the French Canucks were so very odd.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are sorry. Yes, you are.

It was... less odd than you might think. Satan was there because in the first act, the lead woman/raconteur told a story to the children about Jean-Baptiste who hosted a dancing party and the Devil as Handsome Stranger showed up and all the girls wanted to dance with him, but the baby recognized what he was, and he was chased from the home. Good old folktale. This mirrored the main drama of the second act, which was "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", only with a dance-contest instead of a fiddling contest. This is also good folklore, I'm sure Quebecois as well, and was likely suggested because some of the actual Quebecois ringer performers they had this year was a trio of astounding clog-dancers (one of whom, a woman, played Satan).

That was all lovely. Not *especially* Christmassy except that they wove the dance-contest in with another main theme -- which I didn't even mention above -- about five voyageurs who went out fur-trapping and were wishing on New Year's eve that they could go home and party with the families, and one unwisely said, "I'd give my soul for...", and therefore of course Satan appeared and offered them a Flying Canoe (the execution of which was done in 3 ways -- guys on stage with canoe; a gorgeous, gorgeous shadow-theatre with scrolling backdrop of the flying canoe; and an actual lit-from-inside 3-foot-long prop which they sent across the ceiling of Sanders Theatre on a wire). Which they took but of course they failed FAILED failed to follow any of the stipulations ("you can't swear, you can't drink wine, and you must leave before midnight, or your souls go to Satan, etc.").

So the dance contest was a challenge by the priest in order to win the five's souls back from Satan. You know how it is.

The skeletons delivered the Flying Canoe, and then came to escort Satan into the Gates of Hell, after he lost the contest; the Gates of Hell opened out of the country stove that had been at the back all along.

The Werewolf was this year's more French-Canuck version of the dragon, in the usual St. George/Dragon play they always do, you know? Only St. George was a Mountie. And the Werewolf was the one that was killed (by... being hit on the head by a baseball. No, not kidding.) And Napoleon was the doctor, who was brought in to bring... the Werewolf... back to life. Because the Werewolf was Father Christmas's son.

No, we didn't quite understand all the weird ramifications of that, either. Nor the ramifications of Napoleon drawing off a vial of the Werewolf's presumably cursed blood and then drinking it as he went offstage. *scratches head*

But what the heck!

For my money -- it was upbeat and that forgave a lot. I think it would have been *better* if they had replaced a few nice but not Christmassy songs (such as the horribly catchy "Aupres de ma blonde, quil fait bon, fait bon, fait bon", which is STILL STUCK IN MY HEAD, dammit) with maybe one more French Christmas carol in the first act, and two in the second. That would have helped to overcome the lack-of-Christmas-feeling in some of the rest.

Still... better than several Revels we can name recently.