If you thought Vancouver performers Aaron Malkin and Alastair Knowles were British after leaving last year’s performance of O Christmas Tea, you’re not alone. The stage actors—who go by the names James and Jamesy—grew up watching Monty Python, Mr. Bean, and other English shows that set the tone for their careers.
Having just come from shows Off-Broadway, the duo has new additions to O Christmas Tea this year. The story is the same as any other year, but the stage effects are what the pair is particularly excited about this year, having learned some new tricks in The Big Apple.
“In the epicentre of theatre, we get exposed to a lot of high-calibre shows that we get to pick and choose elements from,” says Knowles—who plays Jamesy—of his experience in Manhattan. “We really got to add confetti cannonsin our show.”
Growing up in West Africa didn’t stop Knowles from consuming English television, which is where he was introduced to this type of absurd physical comedy.
“There’s something that I love about the British sense of propriety and the love of the absurdity,” he says. “In Monty Python[and] Mr. Bean, it’s these characters that are trying to be proper; they’re trying to do things the right way. It’s that, even though life is kind of crazy, you can still kind of hold on to this sense of ‘everything’s under control.’”
Knowles and Malkin have got it under control; the art lies in making it look like they don’t. The show deals mainly with a disruption of the normal, a technique used widely in theatre. Two friends get together for a nice cup of Christmas tea: what could go wrong?
Malkin says that although the show is scripted, improvisation plays a huge role in the development process.
“So much that’s in the show are events that happened at one point, accidentally,” he says, “or events that surprised us and worked so well that we thought, ‘We have to put this in the show.’”
A big part of the two performers’ craft is making is making it seem like something is happening accidentally for the first time. “That’s a really fun art, I would say,” says Malkin. “I remember early on I thought, ‘Let’s just have the show be a wild improvisation; wouldn’t that be so fun? [Our director] said, ‘That’s great, but there’s a real magic in being able to play a script like it’s your first time going through it.’”
O Christmas Tea
7:30 pm Thursday, December 13 and Friday, December 14
$24.25 to $34.75, Royal Theatre
rmts.bc.ca