I had a wonderful experience on Monday evening at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax at Bette MacDonald’s Tis the Season 13, which she has been touring to sold out houses all over the province since November 29, 2019. It was a hilarious evening of sketch comedy and music and lots of irreverent Christmas cheer.
MacDonald began the show portraying her character Wayne Tomko saying goodbye to his drinking buddies, Martin MacKinnon (Maynard Morrison), Beaver MacLeod (Jordan Musycsyn), and Iggy (Mary-Colin Chisholm) before heading up Toronto for an adventure. Wayne is a classic schmuck, so much so that he makes his hapless pals Martin, Beaver, and Iggy look reasonable by comparison. It’s delightful to watch MacDonald milk every opportunity to poke fun at cringe-inducing toxic masculinity and the sort of lack of common sense that our society sometimes has come to embrace as part of some perverse “everyman” charm. Chisholm shines particularly brightly as Iggy, who goofily teases Wayne every chance he gets, thrilled to be in the company of those [even] less astute than he is. As the show progresses we see Wayne finding himself in a more Dickensian narrative as he is forced to reckon with the true meaning of Christmas. Scrooge may be able to dramatically shift his entire worldview after being visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve, but what about Wayne Tomko?
MacDonald also played a vexed lawyer trying to plead her sister’s case, while her sister (Chisholm) shows up drunk and unrepentant to the hearing. Watching MacDonald and Chisholm in scenes together is like watching a very adept game of tennis, the shots are always returned, quicker, sharper, and more surprising each time. They also get to spar against one another in the MacLeod Family sketches, which are Cape Breton’s answer to Carol Burnett’s “Mama’s Family.” In Tis the Season Chisholm plays the hilariously persnickety Gaelic-infused Nana to MacDonald’s exasperated daughter in law, who is trying to escape to her sister’s house in Kitchener so that she doesn’t have to do the Christmas cooking. Chisholm is absolutely hysterical as Nana, and the tension between her and MacDonald in these sketches works so beautifully. We also get to see Nana visit Father Gillis (Morrison) on Christmas Eve, which is also a lot of fun. Chisholm brings so much specificity and attention to detail to Nana, from the way she puts on her coat to the way she holds her hands, Nana is a brilliant three-dimensional character who could walk out into her own play or television show spin-off seamlessly.
We were also treated to MacDonald’s iconic characters Beulah Claxton, whose Christmas show reminds me of a mixture of Catherine O’Hara as Lola Heatherton on SCTV and Rosemary Clooney, and, of course, Mary Morrison. Tis the Season 13 brings back one of the show’s most beloved sketches: The Nativity, in which Mary Morrison needs to step in at the last minute to play the Virgin Mary in the church’s Christmas play. Chaos, hilarity, and absurdity, obviously, ensues. It’s immediately clear why this sketch is so popular, it showcases the best of Morrison’s irreverent humour and combines it with a dash of Christmas spirit, and a sprinkling of Catholicism for a truly Nova Scotian re-telling of the birth of Christ.
It wouldn’t be a Cape Breton Christmas sketch show without some great music. Jordan Musycsyn performed three songs, including “Christmas in Cape Breton” and “Song for Gaga” from his brand new album Around the Fire. Both conjure sweet images of family traditions, the sharing of culture, of music, and the warmth and coziness of gathering together to celebrate the season. Musycsyn has a distinctive voice, with a clear Country and Americana influence in his sound. His original songs are well crafted and speak from the heart of his own experience. It is a great record to put on while cuddled up in front of the fire this winter. Joe Waye Jr. also plays some instrumentals on the guitar and it’s mind-blowing to watch him perform.
It’s easy to see why this is the thirteenth iteration of MacDonald’s Tis the Season; for those who come back every year there is a familiarity with these characters, which gives the show a sense of home that resonates so strongly at Christmas, and for those seeing the show for the first time, it doesn’t take long to build your own rapport with these characters and their ridiculous shenanigans. The audience laughed heartily throughout the evening, it is a genuinely silly and charming show, I went home feeling full of the festive spirit and with a full heart. I’m already looking forward to Tis The Season 14!
Tis the Season 13 had its final show at The Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay on December 12th.
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