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THE FAT MAN IN RED
COMES EARLY
The True Meaning of Christmas: This December
will see a gift of an entirely new ilk tied with a
jaunty bow and set before our glittering, expect
ant eyes: Athens' very own professional acting
company. With an outreach program to help brew
enduring love of the immortal Bard in the off
ing, an ambitious calendar of future shows, and
a company stocked with talent. Rose of Athens
is ready to make its entrance into the hearts and
minds of the Athens cultural scene. The inaugural
production for Rose of Athens is one in a series
of raucously addled condensations of the great
overarching themes of western culture concocted
by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, includ
ing the storied rendering of the entire works of
the playwright in a two-act play. The Bible: The
Complete Word of God (abridged) renders in
the same closely-confined time frame the en
tire oeuvre of the Lord Almighty in a gloriously
(and rightly so) surreal melange of styles from
vaudeville to Benny Hill Laudably coming out of
the c ates with a roar, the three actors swapping
mant es for this Herculean (er, Samsonian?) task
have quite the pedigree, with Rose of Athens'
conceptual parent Lisa Cesnik, local tunesmith
Sean Arrington and Lisa Mende of ''Seinfeld*
Rose of Athens
fame (Carol, with the *ugly baby,* for those
keeping score). The Bible: The Complete Word of
God (abridged) plays at Jittery Joe's Roasting
Company on East Broad Street on Friday, Dec. 1
and Saturday, Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec.
3 at 2 p.m. Also playing Dec. 7-9. Call 706-769-
9829 for tickets, which range from S10 to S15, or
for further info.
A Farce Within a Farce: The Clarke Central
Players are tackling Micnael Trayn's wickedly
outrageous comedy Noises Off, a play within a
play about a company of inept actors and their
pompous director fumbling through a disastrous
production of another farce, titled Nothing On. I
wrote about University Theatre's production last
year, and this still holds true: this play is not
only a pristine example of hilariously awkward
British humor, but is also a prime, mayhem-laden
skewer for the theatre in general Go see how the
local kids pull this off! Noises Off plays at CCHS
Hell Auditorium, Thursday, Nov. 30-Saturday,
Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $5-$7. For more
info, call the school at 706-357-5200.
Jollies: Those who spent many a secluded child
hood afternoon consuming subversive whimsy via
the pages of Where the Sidewalk Ends might (but
probably shouldn't) be shocked by the other side
of Shel Silverstein. In addition to contributing
to Playboy for the majority of the magazine's ex
istence, penning *A Boy Named Sue' (check your
copy of San Quentir, we can wait), and rattling
off obscenely verbose story-songs about joint
smoking contests on Dr. Demento's radio show,
Silverstein also wrote dozens of plays infused
with the same sideways perspective and knotty
wordplay, but designed for a decidedly older
audience. UGA student-run production troupe
Thallan-Blackfriars is taking on a collection of
14 of these darkly comedic blitzkriegs, skewer
ing everything from questionable sex dreams
to putative gateways to the underworld, known
collectively as Shel's Shorts, utilizing the en
semble's talented stable of directors and actors.
Shel's Shorts can be seen at the UGA Fine Arts
Building's Cellar Theatre on Friday, Dec. 1 and
Saturday, Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets are S5 at the
door. Call 706-542-2836 for more details.
Angels 2,3,5,7: Though autism is usually consid
ered debilitating, the incredible focus and intelli
gence displayed by those with the form known as
Asperger's Syndrome have led many to speculate
that Kubrick, Einstein and Newton may well have
been sufferers. Local theatrical man-about-town
Rex Totty has adapted the story of a 15-year-old
boy with the syndrome who directs his obsessive
talents (like knowing every prime number up to
7507) to solving the mystery of who brutally
murdered his neighbor's dog in a play titled
Blue Angel. Readings of the never-before-staged
work will be held at Athens Community Theatre
on Friday, Dec. 1 and
Saturday, Dec. 2 at 3
p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 3
at 2 p.m. Admission is S5
at the door.
Eyes All Aglow: Most
people don't realize that
Charles Dickens actu
ally wrote five Christmas
books. A Christmas
Carol, the more familiar
little Christmas ghost
story, did indeed sell well
enough to pay off the
debt Dickens intended it
to cover, but The Cricket
on the Hearth was by far
the more popular title in
its day, selling more than
three times the number
of copies. The book tells
the story of a poor carrier (with the imminently
Dickensian name of Peerybingle) and his family
under the care of the angel-like hearth cricket, a
poor toy maker, and a stony toy merchant who,
as so often happens, finds his heart melting in
the warmth of the season. After staging an adap
tation of the more popular A Christmas Carol at
UGA last year, Joelle Re Arp Dunham will helm
her own adaptation of the lesser-known title this
season with the youngsters at the Athens Little
Playhouse. The Cricket on the Hearth plays at
Athens Community Theatre off Prince Avenue
on Dec. 8-9 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 9-10 at 2
p.m. Tickets cost $10 or $8 for students and se
niors. Reservations, 706-208*1036.
Tinsel-strewn: Leave it to kitsch/ cult auteur
John Waters to wrap incisive commentary about
American race relations in a candy-colored
confection of cross-dressing and mashed-po-
tato dancing. Further, leave it to the Broadway
producers to revive said film 15 years later as
an Tony Awtrd-winning musical comedy extrava
ganza. The touring production of Hairspray,
complete with doo-wop dance numbers and that
inimitable Baltimore brand of cool, conies to
the Classic Center Theater for a single night of
bouffant-coiffed glee on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8
p.m. Tickets range in price from $10 to $65 and
can be reserved via the website at www.clas-
siccenter.com or by phoning the box office at
706-357-4444. Word to the wary: Hairspray was
the only of Waters' films tame enough for a PG
rating and the musical is similarly suitable for a
night of family fun.
Brandon Waddell
I
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