Five of the Best: Christmas Plays

With the festive season currently in full swing, here's a rundown of some notable plays set during Christmastime.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! That is certainly true for many theatres. Christmas offers an occasion for families to don their glad rags for a special outing to The Nutcracker, the annual pantomime or a popular West End show.

Pantomime in particular - that eccentric, unabashedly frivolous British theatre pastime - tends to keep the boards occupied over the festive season, and provides the most lucrative period for many regional theatres and performers.

There are also a few staple Christmas plays that perennially vie for the public's attention. Excluding the Nativity story - an introductory theatre experience for many school-children and a sacred annual duty for proud parents across the nation (bah, humbug) - the two frontrunners of the genre are Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Unfortunately, due to the former being a book adaptation and the latter containing no reference to Christmas beyond its title, neither of those have made our list. (Sorry, lads, better luck next year!)

Those reading this whilst tucking into a mince pie should be warned that - although ostensibly based during Christmastime - the following plays don't necessarily comply with the usual trappings peddled by idyllic Hallmark movies, decadent supermarket commercials and festive jukebox favourites. This yuletide fare is more akin to 'In the Bleak Midwinter' than 'Rockin Around the Xmas Tree'. They're a reminder that, contrary to the prevailing saccharine and schmaltz, this time of year can also be a welcome occasion for darker themes. With the frosty weather and early dusks, it's little coincidence that two plays from our recent Horror blog post took place during Christmastime, and A Ghost Story for Christmas remains a longstanding British institution on the small-screen.

So stuff the turkey! Feast your eyes on our pick of five plays set during the festive season...

The Bells - Erckmann-Chatrian (1867)

'Happy are those who have nothing on their conscience!' 

The Bells - written by the playwriting duo Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian - is most fondly remembered today thanks to the legendary Victorian actor Sir Henry Irving. Its West End premiere at the Lyceum Theatre in 1871 received rave reviews for its lead, who was later to own that same theatre and kept The Bells in his repertoire up until his death in 1905.

The story involves a wealthy Burgomaster, Mathias (Irving), preparing for his daughter's wedding. However, a shadow is cast by memories of a crime committed on that same night - Christmas Eve - 15 years before. A Polish traveller was murdered and robbed of a girdle filled with gold but neither his body nor his assassin were ever found. The killer, Mathias, has carried his secret ever since and is plagued with guilt - the bells of the title ('Bells! Bells!') are the sounds he hears in his head, phantom echoes of the ones attached to his victim's horse.

Similar to Edgar Allan Poe's contemporary short story The Tell-Tale Heart, the play depicts a murderer made mad by his own guilty conscience. Melodramatic by today's standards, it's no wonder this was such a perfect vehicle for Irving. Intermittent soliloquies gave him ideal opportunities for solo grandstanding. The audience are the confidantes made privy to the insanity raging inside Mathias' skull.

Serving suggestion: Midnight on Christmas Eve, after the young'uns have gone to bed.

A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen (1879)

Torvald: 'No man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves.' 

Nina: 'Millions of women have.' 

A Doll's House, considered by many Ibsen's masterpiece, is so frequently revived today that it is easy to overlook the fact that its story is set during the festive season - from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day.

Nora, the wife of a bank manager (Torvald), is blackmailed by a bank employee due to forging her father's signature on a document related to a loan on behalf of her husband's health. After a violent and undermining confrontation with Torvald, Nora resolves to leave her family for the sake of her own independence.

Long before the Women's Liberation Movement, Ibsen's play was a bold and controversial attack on the perceived role of women in society and the tacit male oppression which forced many to renounce their right of freedom in their own household.

Certainly not traditionally festive, Nora's legendary exit at the end of the play is perhaps made even bolder by happening at Christmastime.

Serving suggestion: Goes down well after a viewing of 'Love Actually'.

The Lion in Winter - James Goldman (1966)

Eleanor: 'How dear of you to let me out of jail.' 

Henry: 'It's only for the holidays.' 

Set in 1183, The Lion in Winter depicts the Christmas Court of the reigning English king, Henry II. The Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, has been temportarily released from her imprisonment for the occasion as Henry prepares to name his successor and resolve a peace treaty with the newly-crowned King of France, Philip II.

Comparisons with King Lear are overt and, like Lear before him, Henry soon learns 'How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child.' The entire family thrive on scheming and tussles of power, political machinations trumping love, honour and familial affection. Emotionally deprived and morally depraved, the climax finds the princes plotting patricide. As the Queen says, 'what family doesn't have its ups and downs?'

There's a brilliant screen adaptation starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn, and featuring the big screen debuts of Timothy Dalton and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Serving suggestion: Whilst preparing for a get-together with the extended family or royalty.

Dublin Carol - Conor McPherson (2000)

'Tomorrow is Saturday and that's all. Another filthy morning, only there's a star in the East.' 

Irish playwright Conor McPherson's plays tend to dwell in bleak territories. This year saw his hit ghost story-play The Weir - set in a remote pub - successfully revived, and a new play, The Brightening Air - located in a decaying Irish farmhouse - opened to critical acclaim.

He goes one further in Dublin Carol, basing the action in an undertakers' on Christmas Eve.

'...there's some poor bastard out there. Looking forward to the old Xmas, not knowing he'll be under this roof on Monday morning waiting to be buried'.

The main character, John, is an alcoholic misanthrope lamenting a past affair that cost him his wife and family. The eponymous Carol was the name of his mistress. A dilemma confronts John when his daughter, Mary, arrives to inform him that his estranged wife is dying and to ask whether he might take charge of her funeral.

An intensely personal play, Conor McPherson said the writing process was 'like staring into a nightmare of all my fears.'

In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens cheerily describes the festive period as a time for all to be viewed as 'fellow-passengers to the grave.' Dublin Carol doesn't necessarily dispute that sentiment but McPherson's tale certainly stares more unremittingly into the gaping dirt that awaits us all.

Serving suggestion: Immediately before or after taking the decorations down.

Rules for Living - Sam Holcroft (2015)

'As a general rule, people think you're a really interesting person if you let them talk at you about something of real interest to them.' 

Sam Holcroft's Rules for Living was equally inspired by a self-help book on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and the card game 'Bedlam'.

Set on Christmas Day, the play sees a family gathering devolve into chaos as truths are unearthed and relations fractured.

In a neat device to ramp-up the farce, a succession of rules are made visible to the audience (such as 'Matthew must sit to tell a lie') that the specified character must abide by for the rest of the play. A conceit taken from the aforementioned card game, Bedlam, these 'rules' both serve as private jokes for the audience and also reflect the unspoken inter-behavioural strictures we impose on ourselves in social situations. Tensions mount as more rules come into effect, sometimes in-conflict, and breaking point is reached when the characters themselves sit down for an actual game of Bedlam.

Like the previous plays, Rules for Living is unlikely to invoke feelings of festive cheer but its setting was certainly not casually chosen. Holcroft uses Christmas Day as a time when tensions run high and family relations are often strained.

Serving suggestion: After the family board-game turns sour and everyone has retreated to separate rooms.

Feel free to share your thoughts on Christmas-based plays in the comments, below. And a very Merry Christmas unto you!