Christmas tale comes straight from the Rock

Director Cheryl Jameson has led a quirky life and so it’s not surprising she would mount an equally eccentric play as the first show of her founding company Whizzgiggling Productions.

Jameson hopes to launch a new seasonal tradition with The Best Newfoundland Christmas Pageant Ever playing at the Varscona Theatre Wednesday and Thursday.

Last seen in Northern Light’s acclaimed production, The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide, she travelled the world only to return back home in 2006 with hubby Justin Gambin, the show’s dialect coach.

They were living in Newfoundland, and with Alberta’s booming economy bolstered by the oilsands, the couple decided to try their luck out west. “A lot of his friends were already living in Fort McMurray.”

Fort McMurray has the second largest population of people from Newfoundland not currently living on the Rock, adds Jameson. And for many who miss their unique cultural roots, the 80-minute play represents a taste of home.

Born and raised in Edmonton, she took one year of the Grant MacEwan College musical theatre arts program in 1998 before bolting to Victoria to refine her theatre technique. She later went to Toronto where she acted and sang in smaller ensemble roles.

Her longest gig was singing aboard Renaissance Cruise lines. But the company was financially unstable and when 9/11 hit guests stopped travelling and cancelled their reservations. “It went bankrupt two days after that,” says Jameson.

A Newfoundland sailor aboard the ship invited her to return home with him. “I was young. I was 23 and I said, ‘Sure. Why not?’”

The romance dissolved, however, while living on the Rock for four years. She joined Spirit of Newfoundland Productions, a lively group of vocalists and actors that use musical theatre as a way to celebrate the special culture of the island.

That’s where she was first introduced to The Best Newfoundland Christmas Pageant Ever, an adaptation of Barbara Robinson’s children’s novel.

It is the story of six delinquent children with the surname Herdsmen. Only three are on stage Leroy, 9, (Richard Lee), Imogene, 13, (Jameson) and Ralph (Cole Hume), 15. They are notorious around the community because they smoke, lie, steal, hit people, swear at teachers and burn things down. In general, they cause trouble.

When Mrs. Armstrong, the director of the community Christmas pageant breaks a leg, the poor unsuspecting Mrs. O’Brien takes the reins. After all, what could go wrong? It’s the same story and the same Christmas carols year after year.

When the Herdsmen learn that snacks are being served during rehearsals, they come to church for the first time. Not only do they grab food, but also bully their way into the pageant, and this does not sit well with folk that disapprove of them.

Their unvarnished perspective quickly becomes apparent. “When the mum puts the baby in the animal’s feeding trough, they think it’s horrible. And when they hear about Herod, to them it sounds worse than it is and they turn it into a war game.”

But everything clicks. “It’s the Herdsmen being so wrong and turning out so right, and it’s about re-educating the audience of what Christmas is all about. The innocence makes it so beautiful. And the humour is so endearing and you will laugh all the while.”