Review: CHRISTMAS DAY at Almeida

First-off we should mention the bizarre setting in which the family gather. Certainly not the fault of designer Miriam Buether who has conjured the required utilitarian office which has been converted to various rooms to house as many as twelve cohabiting young people somewhere in North London. What an oddly incongruous and jarring space it is, with its gargantuan ominously dangling industrial heater overhead which periodically bursts into life, like a growling metaphor for antisemitism. The rest, is an array of makeshift partitioning, broken suspended ceiling tiles and fluorescent strip lights. Thankfully, someone among the rag-tag of misfit characters has put up some Christmas lights to complement the large tree positioned in the main entrance space which is also where the communal table, fridge and kitchen sink are located. And so our scene is (somewhat inelegantly) set and players gathered to do battle.

Elliot (Nigel Lindsay) has come to visit his son and daughter Noah (Samuel Blenkin) and Tamara (Bel Powley) who appear to be members of a commune — although everyone is a eager to deny it is a commune. Noah's gentile girlfriend Maud (Callie Cooke) is a natural peacekeeper and neutraliser of the combative discussions which frequently erupt between the highly-strung individuals. For Christmas, those individuals include Tamara's former partner Aaron (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) who is over from Israel, with news.

There are multitudinous topics of conversation and threads which often ramble off in different directions (rather like the diaspora, which is frequently invoked). In the main, they contribute little to the sanctimonious discourse but when the big outbursts come, they involve what it is to be Jewish in a world which currently seems eager to draw comparison between modern Israel's action in Gaza and Nazi Germany's atrocities. The dangers of such comparisons when they become embedded, are not lost on the various individuals around the table. Tamara in particular feels the potential isolation and creeping antisemitism, but her student-like advocacy and intellectualising merely antagonises her father who explodes, repeating the phrase “It's fucking ours” seemingly in relation to land (disputed or otherwise) in the Middle East.

Aaron meanwhile, manages to create a wholly avoidable situation with his ex by failing to communicate the information which was his primary reason for attending the gathering. The last member of the cast Jamie Ankrah plays three supporting characters who periodically venture through the space providing momentary distraction from the existing tension but adding their own layer of spaced-out, emotional volatility to the already uncomfortable environment.

If the intention was to create a giant self-indulgent talking shop in which characters bicker and repeatedly express exasperation, then the team can safely put a tick in the box. However, there are real issues touched-on here, and it is a pity that they are so often obscured by a tendency towards self-conscious grandstanding and symbolic melodrama (look out for the smearing of fox blood). The overall effect is to add an unhelpful commentary on the wider subject — one which barely manages to entertain, nor broadens thinking around the sensitive and explosive issues.

CHRISTMAS DAY continues at the Almeida until 8th January.