If you are looking for something besides the Grinch or "A Christmas Carol" this holiday season, Michael Mizerany has a new play set on Christmas Eve — but it's completely devoid of warm and fuzzy sentimentality.
For anyone needing an antidote to holiday cheer, actor Shane Hennessey has the perfect option.
"It's like the 'Die Hard' of shows in the sense that it's got Christmas elements, but it's not a Christmas show," Hennessey said. "It's much more action-packed than that."
"There's a body count, let’s put it that way," explained playwright and director Mizerany.
That’s right, Mizerany’s "89 Carson Junction Road" is not your typical holiday fare even though it’s set on Christmas Eve.
"The bodies are not under the tree, so at least that's good," Mizerany added. "But by the time you leave, you'll be like, 'Oh, my gosh, these people's lives are blown apart."
One of the people whose life is about to be impacted is Hank Supine, played by Kevin Phantom.
"For holiday times, everyone has wishes and desires and the things that they hope to get," Phantom said. "Just because there's magic in the air, usually when it comes to Christmas."
The wishes of Phantom’s Hank are in opposition to those of Hennessey’s Archer.
"Everyone comes into the show wanting something," Hennessey said. "And I think it's pretty safe to say no one gets what they want by the end of it."
Kay Marian McNellen plays Lulu, a waitress at an isolated desert diner. The character loves old movies and Christmas songs.
"So the play is not anti-Christmas," McNellen said. "But Christmas is a really fun backdrop to fear, of which there is much in this show. So I think it's there as a contrast to the theme, which helps to lift up the theme from where it could be, which is very dark."
Jacob James plays Red Dance, the father to McNellen’s Lulu.
"For some people, Christmas may be a more difficult time for them," James said. "And some people want to see something a little bit more dark and gritty and something that they feel that they're like, 'Yeah, it's not my favorite time of the year, and that's OK.'"
The play is set in an isolated diner in 2008 and involves two men who shared intense combat experiences. Mizerany interviewed family members and gay veterans for research.
"They told me a little bit about the war and their experiences, and then gay veterans about what they had to go and fight this war, but keep their love in secret," Mizerany said. "They would meet people in war, and that would be a moment of solace in war, but it's not something that they could admit to. It was silenced. It could get you killed or court-martialed. I wanted to also explore that as well."
"He's able to really bring that trauma to the page in a meaningful way," Hennessey added. "That's been really fun to explore with this cast."
This was Hennessey's first time working on a play Mizerany has written, but Phantom has worked with him before.
"Michael writes really unique storylines, and he also focuses on gay characters and gay themes, but also puts them on their head," Phantom said. "So it also just feels like I get to do something different every time I go in, and it challenges me."
And it may challenge audiences who have certain expectations during the holidays.
"I like to say that this show feels like a really great short horror novel set at Christmas," McNellen explained. "So if you like a short Stephen King, if you like 'The Mist' or something like that, I think you will love this show."
Finally, a Christmas show for me.
"89 Carson Junction Road," produced by Compulsion Dance and Theater, runs this weekend and next at Diversionary’s Black Box Theatre.
