Santa Maria Civic Theatre’s latest production is titled A Christmas Cactus, which sounds like it could be a holiday-themed western revue, or a western-themed holiday revue, but it’s neither. The “cactus” of the title refers to a big-city private investigator named Katie “Cactus” O’ Riley.
Cactus (Sydney Asencio) and her assistant, Fred Booker (Iain Freckleton), are about to close up shop for the holidays—and Cactus is thinking of closing the office for good—when they take the case of an escaped convict who pleads innocence.
As one character characterizes her, Cactus is “prickly, but beautiful,” and Asencio’s performance lives up to that description. She makes a strong, smart lead performer. (In the interest of full disclosure, Asencio is the daughter of Sun Arts Editor Shelly Cone, but this critic would have reached the same conclusions anyway.)
Freckleton is great at deadpan humor, as he’s shown in several past SMCT productions. It’s sweet how he encourages Cactus to stay in the detective business, and it’s clear these two characters have a long history.
Eliot Byerrum’s script suffers from some awkward plotting and genre confusion. It’s not much of a mystery—Cactus spends most of the play searching the office for evidence that will prove something we’re told about 10 minutes into Act One. Nor is it much of an adaptation of A Christmas Carol (which, after the western concept proved incorrect, seemed the next logical implication). There are some random references—a character’s middle name is Fezziwig, money was embezzled from the “Tiny Tim Fund,” etc.—but the actual story is unrelated to Dickens’ Christmas classic.
The script feels almost like a Christmas episode of a comedy-drama detective TV series. The only things about the play that really suggest the holiday spirit are decorations in Cactus’ office and carols being played by an unseen street saxophonist.
The title might have been Who Framed Neville F. Smedley? We know the convict is innocent long before the conclusion, because, as Cactus points out, he’s obviously too endearingly incompetent to commit any crime. Richard Dresp is delightful at befuddled funny business.
Benjamin Oh plays his fellow escapee, illegal immigrant Ramon Ramirez. Oh’s delivery is reminiscent of the soft-spoken, low-keyed Pedro (as in “Vote for Pedro”) from the movie Napoleon Dynamite. He gives a sensitive, sympathetic performance, and he’s also really good at catching the books that Cactus flings around the stage.
The show becomes a zany comedy of errors with the arrival of Fred’s mother, who mistakes the goings-on in Cactus’ office for a “murder mystery party,” and thinks that Smedley and Ramon are actors. Gina Greathouse gives the broadest comic performance as the archetypal overbearing mother. She gets a lot of laughs, but there’s also a cute spark of romance between her and Smedley.
While dealing with all of this, Cactus also must fend off the amorous advances of deputy D.A. Stuart Windsor (Billy Cortez)—and keep him from discovering the escaped convicts. Cortez lets us see why Cactus is repelled by this smarmy suitor, and yet at the same time, brings across sincere feelings.
You’ve got to hand it to Cactus: It’s not every detective who can solve a mystery without leaving her office but here’s a question for the playwright: Why are assertive female characters always played off of passive male characters? There’s the deferential secretary, the pleading suitor, the bungling convict, the meek convict the only male character who’s a match for Cactus is someone who’s dead before the play begins.
Despite not delivering much in the holiday or mystery departments, the play is a fun time at the theater, thanks in large part to the energetic, genuine cast. Director Steve Chambers has planted an uneven script and grown a sturdy “Christmas Cactus.”
INFOBOX: A prickly holiday
A Christmas Cactus plays through Dec. 13 at Santa Maria Civic Theatre, 1660 N. McClelland in Santa Maria. Tickets are $14. Call 922-4442 for information.
It was freelancer Brent Parker, in the study, with a candlestick. Contact him through Arts Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 3, 2008.