The Stage

The Night Before Christmas

Published Wednesday 9 December 2009 at 14:30 by Catherine Usher

A short, snappy, comic Christmas show is probably as much as the boisterous crowd at Islington’s Hen and Chickens can take and that’s what awaits them if they migrate up to the theatre to sample this slice of decidedly adult-themed festive frivolity.

Set in a warehouse where Gary (Alastair Southey) has tied up a diminutive man who is dressed as an elf and claims to be one of Santa’s little helpers, he calls on his friend Simon (Ben Crystal) to establish whether Elf’s story is authentic or whether, in fact, he’s a burglar.

While the sharp dialogue between the trio is witty enough - Michael Keane’s deadpan Elf is particularly impressive - the real entertainment only really gets started when working girl Cherry arrives. Boldly dressed in a knicker-skimming, red miniskirt and with an attitude as spiky as her stiletto-heeled boots, Kellie Batchelor delightfully cranks up Cherry’s brazen character to the max. Outrageous lines such as Cherry’s “I’ve f***ed half the Met while the other half watched” and Gary’s “Is Santa a pusher?” are met with deserved guffaws from the audience.

Only when the show reaches its rather clumsy moral message towards its conclusion does the quality dip slightly. But ultimately, it lives up to what it sets out to be - funny, earthy and sprinkled with a little dose of magic.