For Vancouver-based comedians/actors/writers Aaron Malkin and Alastair Knowles—who go by the stage names James and Jamesy— there’s always time for tea. Their show O Christmas Tea uses traditional Monty Python-era British comedy, but it also breaks down the fourth wall, bringing performers and audience together.
“A big part of what sets us apart from traditional British comedy and slapstick, and physical comedy in general, is the way that the audience feels during the experience,” says Malkin. “People find themselves compelled to participate, and to play with us. We give them opportunities to step into participating in the show—very low-stakes invitations.”
The audience involvement in this show is unique, says Malkin, because the laugh doesn’t come from the awkwardness that often stems from an audience member having to do something during a performance.
“People get on board with the sprit of play that is driving the show and choose to play with us, and they leave with this elation of spirit, like they’ve discovered a new version of themselves,” says Malkin. “There’s a new energy and life and excitement in that; the audience gets to experience that through the audience members that choose to participate.”
And past all the zany humour in the act, there’s a yearning for inner peace lurking inside at least one of the actors.
“At least in my life,” says Knowles, “there’s a desire for a sense of groundedness, of neutrality, from this place of, ‘Oh, I’ve got everything taken care of in my life, I have no worries. There’s nothing wrong. Everything is simple.’”
It’s from this place of simplicity that adventures or action can happen, says Malkin. And that’s how tea gets circled back in to the show.
“Teatime is that time in British culture. You see pictures of men in the Second World War in all their battle gear, on the battlefield, just having their tea,” says Knowles. “They’re taking that time to just ground out… to just be present with each other, with themselves.”
As the name suggests, one of the central props in the play is a teapot. There are other holiday drinks that could have filled up the cup, but none of them quite compete with a cup of tea. Other drinks often associated with Christmas shows—eggnog, for example—have more expectations associated with them, says Knowles. He says that’s where the imagination in the show—which the two wrote—stems from.
“The heart of the show is about cultivating this relationship we have with the audience, this idea that we’re all playing a game together,” he says. “We’re all playing the game of theatre, playing the game of make believe. As we do in our lives.”
Depending on how literal a person wants to get with the Christmas story, says Knowles, there’s a lot of mysticism and magic around things people attribute to Christmas: Santa Claus, presents, The Elf on the Shelf, snowmen coming alive—things that are marketed for children.
“But it’s really also an excuse for adults to play,” says Knowles. “And our show is an exercise in that, an open invitation for those that attend the show to feel that magic.”
Malkin says that audiences are thirsty for unconditional love, and they’ll get that in this show.
“Something I think other audiences have enjoyed about what we do is they sense a love between the two characters, a love that doesn’t have an agenda,” he says. “I think we’re thirsty for that representation on stage, and in life, of two people willing to be vulnerable.”
O Christmas Tea
3 pm and 7:30 pm Sunday, December 8
$19.50 student tickets,
Royal Theatre
rmts.bc.ca