Review: A Town Called Christmas at The Playhouse, Sheffield

In the main auditorium, White Christmas – based on the Bing Crosby musical film from 1954 – is delighting crowds until January 13.

And, downstairs in the Playhouse, littler audience members are being whisked until Saturday, December 30, to A Town Called Christmas, a cosy show for children aged three-plus (and their grown-ups).

The sweetly sentimental setting of the well-paced 45-minute play, performed by a multi-talented cast of just three, is not so much a town really as a feeling, a hankering for yesteryear.

Main character Clementine, dressed in a red and white dress striped like a candycane, dreams of a place where chocolate coins are currency, where gingerbread houses glow under twinkling fairylights. She sits in front of an electric bar fire, takes photographs using an old film camera, and remembers Christmases spent with her late aunt Esther, and the traditions she passed from one generation to the next.

Playwright Elvi Piper’s clever script has as much for the grown-ups in the audience as the little ones. When Clementine finally arrives in the town called Christmas, she discovers not a land of festive perfection but instead a sort of post-pandemic apocalypse, where the workers have been furloughed, the shops are boarded up and the high street is deserted.

But, thanks to a cute malfunctioning robot called Glitch, charming wooden puppetry, and some energetic physical acting – the train journey sequence is particularly well performed – there’s plenty to keep youngsters entertained too.

Our children liked Glitch’s ‘funny voice’, the pop-inspired melodies and harmonies of the show’s original songs, and the heartwarming plot twist.

And, whether preschoolers in the audience will fully appreciate the bittersweet hark-back nostalgia or not, the show’s message – about keeping memories of loved ones alive, and holding the past in our hearts – is something we can all make a tradition of this Christmas.

A Town Called Christmas is at The Playhouse, Sheffield, until Saturday, December 30.