Christmas Twist

Just when we really need a break from the incessant holiday music and strength to face our relations, the cheekier holiday fare is here to rescue us. Alt Performance Group is weighing in with A Christmas Twist!, a holiday parody directed by Peter Michael Marino, and starring Tim Newell, David Lundy, Afrim Gjonbalaj, David Butler, Constance McEwen, Shaun McLaughlin, and Bethany Sparacio. A preview on Youtube makes this appear to be a conflation of A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist. The show runs December 11-30, Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, plus December 29 at 8pm and December 31 at 7pm. There are matinees at 3pm on December 19, 26, and 27. I can’t imagine why, but there will be no shows on December 24 or 25. Performances take place at the Alt Theatre, 255 Great Arrow Avenue, third floor (868-6847).

Subversive Survival Party

Down the hall from Alt, Subversive Theatre is throwing itself a survival party and the centerpiece is A Totalitarian Christmas, an outrageous old-time-radio style holiday adventure farce by Clinton Ours, starring Paul O’Hern as Karl Marx, Joey Bucheker as the Rebel Elf Leader, Anne Kurtis as Sarah Palin, Tom Izard as Rudolf the Rednosed Henchman, and Bill Schmidt as the psychopathic dictator Santa Claus. In this touching tale, Santa kidnaps Karl Marx in a war for consumerism; the elves are in revolt; George Bush arms Santa with weapons of mass destruction; and Sarah Palin won’t shut up.

The survival party goes from 6pm to 8pm; the show starts and 8pm and runs about half an hour. This one-night event takes place on Saturday, December 12 in the Manny Fried Playhouse (255 Great Arrow Avenue). Kurt Schneiderman directs.

Admission to both the party and the staged reading is a minimum contribution of $10, or you can become a new member of Subversive Theatre and get in free. For more information, give Subversive Theatre a call at 408-0499 or visit their Web site at www.subversivetheatre.org.

See this week's On The Boards for complete area theater listings.