The book “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” tells a story about the children who lived in poverty and people who decided to help them. However, the play based on this book presented a new vision of its characters and ideas. The main goal of this paper is to analyze this production, highlighting its most striking aspects.
The purpose of this production is to deepen the understanding of the story and its themes. I think that this play was chosen because it provided much space for expressing the main ideas of the book. The diversity of characters, an interesting and unusual plot, and the variety of settings are factors that contributed to the comprehensive embodiment of the author’s vision. The artists emphasized the importance of secondary characters. Also, the idea of the strong interdependence of unfortunate kids was expressed very emotionally. The artists aimed to make an audience associate the shortcomings of characters with their own. Due to talented acting, many spectators recognized themselves in the characters on the stage.
I believe that artists successfully reached their goals. For example, the roles of Bob Badley and Mrs. Armstrong underlined the significance of the side characters. Although Bob Badley’s role is seemingly minor, he quietly helped the spectators put together all hints to see the big picture and the logic of the narrative. He showed the parallels between the tattered, deprived, and isolated Herdmans and the Holy Family. Also, despite lying on a stretcher, Mrs. Armstrong revealed an enormously big personality. The children who played the Herdmans acted in a highly coherent manner. These characters helped to illustrate the poor conditions in which they lived more clearly. The episode when the Herdmans shared their welfare basket with the baby “Jesus” revealed the close interdependence of poor children. Gladys and Imogene demonstrated a profound sense of injustice. The memory of Gladys sleeping in a drawer demonstrated enormous social inequality.
The spectators could recognize themselves in different characters. For example, the character of Mrs. McCarthy who was presented as an annoyingly disgruntled person is a widespread personality type. Another example is Mrs. Slocum who was shown very charmingly and lovely. She unexpectedly got involved in the main drama and became a victim of her innocent intentions.
The play is very touching and inspiring. Poor kids that lived in harsh conditions got the opportunity to shape up. Kind people felt empathy with their difficult fate and tried to help hapless children. Thisperformancedeeply impressed me. I saw all these characters in real life. It let me immerse myself in the atmosphere of this emotional story. I experienced compassion and joy for the noble children and adults who helped each other reconsider their values.
I will certainly recommend this product to my friends. First, it was a high-quality performance. The directing was excellent. The visualization of the book was comprehensive and bright. However, the play completely relied on the professionalism of the actors who performed at the highest level. All characters were demonstrated very naturally. Grace Badley was portrayed by the actor amazingly. Her anxiety, fears, and stereotyping were presented professionally and remarkably. However, the children on the stage attracted major attention. The Bradley kids gave a steadfast performance, making the audience feel self-conscious. Alice was portrayed fantastically. Alice’s bad traits were shown so skillfully that this character elicited strong condemnation in the audience. However, Imogene amazed me the most in this play. When she decided to play Mary, Imogene did not know anything about the Christmas Story. The actor gradually transformed tired and skeptical Imogene into Saint Mary.
Theater scenery and costumes played a crucial role as well. These attributes enhanced the impression of this play. They created a specific atmosphere that helped artists express their emotions more profoundly and naturally. However, I believe that the accompanying music might have been less intense. The sound put excessive pressure on the spectators.
This performance revealed ideas that might elude people while reading the book. The actors presented personalities that surround us in real life. Also, the play helped to understand more deeply such significant aspects of the story as the level of social inequality, the interdependence of poor children, and the necessity of giving people opportunities to evolve.