Back by popular demand, the endearing and poignant production of The Christmas Cabin of Carnaween by Creative Cauldron brings a little bit of fairy magic to this holiday season. This uplifting, engaging and poetic tale celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and reminds of the ‘Christmas within.’
Katie Culligan and Anna Brotman Krass. Photo courtesy of Creative Cauldron.
The story follows the journey of Oona Hegarty, an abandoned tinker’s child who spends her days as a nanny and caregiver in other people’s homes, but dreams of one day having a cabin of her own. Although Oona’s joyous spirit endears her to everyone she works for, the negative view of the marginalized and itinerant tinkers, prevents her inclusion into the homes of the townspeople thus ensuring her destiny as a tinker. Her dream eludes her until the fairy people who come to her aid one snowy Christmas Eve.
The Christmas Cabin opens as a Tinker family clad in homespun muted and worn period dress walk through sunny small scale countryside complete with gray stone fences, green peat bogs and a craggy forest. The atmosphere in the theatre was electrified once the red headed Katie Culligan (Oona Hearty) appeared and transformed herself from a hardworking Irish Cinderella to happy Merry Poppins to a self-sacrificing caretaker. Culligan is a multi-talented rising star who can sing a song without overpowering the children in the ensemble, invoke empathy and dance a jig or reel. Culligan’s rendition of “Oona’s Song” was sparkling, rollicking and playful as she danced and sang about her life. She displayed her crisp, precise and energetic step and reel dancing skills with Jim Lynch and the ensemble in “The Village Dance”. She made the audience weep as Oona got older and smile when Oona’s dream came true.
Other notable performers were Jim Lynch (Conal Hegarty/Mr. Lynch/Ensemble), Judy Butler (Storyteller/Bridget Hegarty/Ensemble) and Penelope Fleming (Storyteller). In addition to the feature actors, the performances by the children in the ensemble were darling and delightful – especially Anna Brotman-Krass performance as one of the Lynch children.
Director Laura Connors Hull and Lighting and Sound Technician John Sami used traditional Irish music as a part of the tale by transforming the theatres atmosphere from suburban Washington to Ireland and changing the mood of a scene by varying the style of the music from a jig to a reel. The musical trio, known as ‘Mahg Meall,’ features Mary Wilkerson, fiddle, Rosemary Gano, flute & whistle and Brogan Latill on guitar, and they performed in the style heard in pubs and at traditional dances. Hull’s placement of the period-dressed musicians near the stage amplified the Irish atmosphere. Paul Spiegelblatt’s lighting design of blue and white colored lights, and Margie Jervis’ scenic and costume design of Oona’s magical blue dress at the Christmas Cabin – were transcendent and bittersweet while being celestial, enchanting, and mythical.
Laura Connors Hull’s production of The Christmas Cabin of Carnaween encompasses all elements of the human condition and exemplifies this traditional Irish Christmas blessing:
“The light of the Christmas star to you, The warmth of home and hearth to you, The cheer and good will of friends to you, The hope of a childlike heart to you, The joy of a thousand angels to you, The love of the Son and God’s peace to you.”
The Christmas Cabin of Carnaween plays through December 18, 2011, at Creative Cauldron at ArtSpace Falls Church – 410 South Maple Avenue, in Falls Church, VA. For tickets, call (571) 239-5288, or order them online.
Watch video highlights of the 2010 production of The Christmas Cabin of Carnaween at Creative Cauldron.
