It’s rare I sit down and pick up a play. I used to love them, used to seek them out and read them, but then… Well. I’d probably lay the blame down on the English Literature half of my degree, where I was forced to read so many plays, and then further dissect them to the point where I just wanted to never see another play ever again in my life. So the inclusion of a play inside A Few More Winter Tales was a surprise (but a very welcome one).
“The Christmas Egg” is a very short piece, two men in a car, one having been hired by the other. It starts with the sex worker listing what’s available and at what price, but the dynamic between the two shifts quickly, and the discussion takes a turn, and the end result was a pleasant and warm smile born from the situations of both men—situations that walk a line between tragedy and something almost hopeful.
I can’t say more without ruining it—it’s truly just that short—so I won’t. But it was nice to come across a play and so easily see and hear it, and then find myself enjoying it and rekindling that love of the form I used to have back in the day a little bit.
'Nathan Burgoine 