“Holiday Memories” this Holiday Season

--Victoria Petrosino, New Rep Reviewer

New Rep’s “Holiday Memories” retells two of Truman Capote’s short stories “The Thanksgiving Visitor” and “A Christmas Memory.”  Both are semi-autobiographical accounts of Capote growing up in Alabama, focusing on the rituals of a family preparing for the holidays: dreaming of Thanksgiving turkeys, collecting pecans for fruitcakes, and finding the perfect tree.  Though some of the traditions are antiquated (such as a trip to the local bootlegger to buy whiskey), the language of the stories is poetic and immersive and the setting fully captures the spirit of the holidays.

Jon Savage’s scene design creates a warm, well-worn setting for the production.  Tools, empty picture frames, flannel shirts, and books are collected almost randomly on wooden shelves along the sides of the stage.  The result is a background that is at once familiar and isolating.  All of the objects give a contained, shut-away impression that suits the nature of the stories: they are familiar and present, but only memories.

Similar to New Rep’s season opener “The Kite Runner,” Russell Vandenbrouke’s stage version of the Capote stories uses an older narrator to re-live the events of his youth; however, “Holiday Memories” uses this structure more successfully.  Marc Carver as Truman Capote brings introspection and sincere reflection to the events of his childhood.  In the second act story “A Christmas Memory,” he looks back on Miss Sook’s (Adrianne Krstansky) fruitcake ritual and remembers how they saved all year and labored for days to send the cakes to relative strangers, such as the bus driver who waved at them or to passing missionaries.  He reflects: “Is it because my friend is shy with everyone except strangers that these strangers, and merest acquaintances, seem to us our truest friends? I think yes.” This rumination gives the narrator purpose in the story-telling experience.

Holiday traditions are deceptively unique.  New Rep’s “Holiday Memories” is an interesting glimpse into the traditions of another generation, but everyone can find something familiar and relatable in the cast and setting of the production.