MONMOUTH – The upcoming presentation of the Monmouth Community Players combines humor with a thought-provoking twist on the Christmas story.
“We are having a little fun with the Nativity story, sort of in the way that ‘Godspell’ did with the parables,” said Coleen Mahan, director of “The Butterfingers Angel.”
She said audiences should come to this show prepared to keep their sense of humor.
The play by William Gibson is not a children’s show.
“There’s some strong stuff in it,” Mahan said, as well as “a lot of thought and tenderness.”
The play’s complete title is “The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, and the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree.” This version features an ill-equipped angel (played by Evan Arbour of Winthrop) who has come with the message of Mary’s miracle. He is a young man who lacks confidence, but is committed to seeing that the divine babe is born.
Mary, portrayed by Emily Trefethen of Monmouth, is confused, reticent and reluctant as she contemplates motherhood. She doesn’t want to get married and doesn’t want to have babies. Thankfully, she quickly comes around, agrees to marry Joseph (Duane Glover of Winthrop), who is older than Mary and also reluctant, and they’re off to Bethlehem.
The journey is not an easy one. They must deal with bad roads, a scrawny donkey and a mysterious Man in Grey.
Tom Crutcher of Jefferson portrays the Man in Gray who morphs into a courier of Caesar and Herod the Nut, and is committed to blocking the events announced by the angel.
There is also a petulant Tree (Kathi Asquith of Greene) who is obsessed with her own desires. The tree represents several types, sports a fur coat and dreams of being a dancer.
The kings are played by Jim Lattin of Winthrop, Andy Tolman of Readfield and David Handley of Monmouth. Women are played by Harmony Lattin of Winthrop and Casey Griffin of Lewiston. Gwen Fraser of Litchfield plays the Girl.
The animals are played by Logan Lattin of Winthrop (donkey), Anna Bilodeau of Monmouth (cow), and Chris Dumont of Greene (sheep).
“The Butterfingers Angel” takes a look at what might have gone through the minds of the people who became part of the Nativity, Mahan said. It recognizes that people who were saints were also human, she added, and the play imagines how they dealt with situations.
The story and its celebration of the miracle of birth “still makes me laugh and it still makes me cry,” the director said.
There are several veteran performers in this production. Among them is Glover, chairman of the Monmouth Community Players board of directors, who has been busy with many behind-the-scenes duties for a couple of years. He has also appeared in numerous shows at other theaters in the area.
Although “The Butterfingers Angel” takes a humorous and irreverent look at the Nativity story, Mahan points out that it retains the important message.
It is not for children, she warns. The play deals with the reality of the dark parts of the story. References to the slaughter of the innocents are strong and are presented as an essential part of the true biblical account.
Go and do
WHAT: “The Butterfingers Angel”
WHO: Monmouth Community Players
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3-4 and 10-11; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5 and 12
WHERE: Cumston Hall, Main Street, Monmouth
TICKETS: $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors; call 933-2229
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- The Monmouth Community Players will present a nontraditional nativity pageant, a play titled “The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, and the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree,” opening Friday, Dec. 3, at Cumston Hall. Cast members, from left, front row, are Duane Glover of Winthrop as Joseph and Emily Trefethen of Monmouth as Mary. Back row: Tom Crutcher of Jefferson as a mysterious Man in Grey, Kathi Asquith of Greene as the Tree and Evan Arbour of Winthrop as the Angel Gabriel. This is a comedic take on the Christmas story, but it also contains some of the darker aspects of the biblical story. There is some strong language and subject matter.
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