The Hoogland Center for the Arts and Over the Moon Productions
present The Holly and the Ivy Nov. 30 - Dec. 2
Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
This moving, award-winning 1950 British drama by Wynyard Browne centers on a recently widowed, aging country vicar who hosts a family Christmas and learns a valuable lesson.
Directed by Kevin Purcell.
The Holly and the Ivy is a captivating Christmas tale with a difference. Browne’s play, set in 1940s Norfolk, England, begins on Christmas Eve and slowly unfolds over 24 hours, during which time secrets are revealed, skeletons are wrenched out of closets, and lives are changed forever.
Tom Lawton plays Martin Gregory, an elderly pastor who refuses to retire, despite pleas from his sisters. Cared for by his loving daughter, Jenny (Megan Cady) Martin bumbles on, completely unaware that Jenny has fallen in love with their neighbor, David (Joey Cruse). The pair long to marry and travel to South America, but Jenny cannot bear to leave her father alone at the vicarage.
Things come to a head when the family - made up of an errant daughter with a penchant for whiskey (Aasne Vigesaa), two fussing, aged aunts (Nancy Cole, Linda Schneider), a carefree cad of a brother (Jonah Walker), and Martin's cousin (John O'Connor) - descend on the vicarage for the festive season.
In the end, the vicar learns the valuable lesson about keeping his own home fires burning before spending too much time tending to the fires of others.
