For anyone who has ever suffered through “Miracle on 34th
Street” or turned off the radio in disgust during the 88th
song about bundling up in the snow (especially when it’s 75
degrees outside), Sandra Tsing Loh’s “Sugar Plum
Fairy” offers an interesting, funny new taste of the holiday
season.
Written and performed by Loh, “Sugar Plum Fairy”
tells the gut-busting story of her childhood years in the Valley as
a 12-year-old “bovine Quasimodo,” living in the 1970s
with a Chinese engineer father and a German homemaker mother.
Directed by David Schweizer, this one-woman show has a sort of
“Bridget Jones: The Middle School Years” vibe to
it.
Nothing is glossed over in this play; it does not glimmer with
holiday magic. Instead of a classic “White Christmas”
theme, the play shows Loh’s parents decorating the fish tank
with Nativity scenes. Everything that is awkward and tacky is here,
and nothing is too outrageous.
The play opens with Loh declaring to the audience, “I hate
Christmas. Don’t you, really, really?” The reason for
her hatred, she says, is because most Christmas stories are too
happy or too sad and always have a moral to them. This story has a
moral as well, but the audience is laughing too hard to let that
bother them.
In the story, the young Loh is vying for the spot of Clara in
her school’s production of the Nutcracker, but she ends up at
the bottom of the “cruel Darwinian order” of the ballet
as a member of Group C in the Waltz of the Flowers.
What makes this play great are the little things every awkward
adolescent experiences. From Loh’s elaborate daydreaming of
her junior high crushes to the inevitable rejections, audience
members feel like they have just witnessed their own prepubescent
bloopers on stage as fantastically frightening memories come
flooding back.
It is a refreshing thrill watching Loh act out childhood
nuances. After recent films like “Thirteen,” in which
self-destructive middle-schoolers gain satisfaction only through
shop-lifting, it is a pleasant joy to watch an overly confident Loh
leap across the stage in her mother’s scarf doing a
“gypsy dance,” completely lost in innocent
imagination.
Unfortunately, her over-the-top facial expressions can be a
little irritating, but they are vital when depicting a mustached
prima ballerina at the hilariously hectic “Nutcracker”
tryouts.
While this play is recommended for audience ages 12 and up,
middle-schoolers beware: Children stuck in the age group Loh makes
light of might still be sensitive about the things that provoke the
rest of the audience to cry tears of laughter.
Do not fear that this one-woman production is simply Loh on a
stool with a mic. The set is filled with deliciously tacky silver
tinsel and Christmas tree lights. Costume changes and clever
lighting techniques create the illusion of a character-filled
stage. Topping it all off is a projection screen with outrageous
images illustrating Loh’s childhood, such as a picture of her
older sister, affectionately captioned as “the
problem.”
For those who cannot bear another sap-filled viewing of
“It’s a Wonderful Life,” try not to run the other
way to “Bad Santa.” Instead, check out “Sugar
Plum Fairy,” a delightful middle ground.
-Fay Gordon