For years now, Johnny has been giving absolute beginners, stacks of encouragement along with that all-important ‘little leg up’ on their desire to be on the stage. This show sees a few new faces with a lot of potential.

Johnny has again found ‘a cause’ to generously support, and this year the raffle money went to a Rotary project, the local women’s refuge.

This fun show from Elfin Productions can be seen at The Latvian Centre, 60 Cleaver Terrace, Belmont – lots of free parking. This venue is gradually being turned into a very smart, well-equipped little theatre. For this show, there was glitter and tinsel everywhere, with dozens of Santa parcels in front of the stage.

The 135-minute performances begin each evening at 8.00 pm; and the season runs until Saturday 20^th December. There are Sunday matinees are at 5.00 pm on the 14^th and 21^st December.

       The curtains open to reveal a Christmas toy workshop. Pixie, Mr Pickles (Jane Sherwood), the chief toymaker, and his assistant, Zebedee (Eamonn Skov) are packing their high quality, wooden toy into boxes, when Rudolph (Bob Morshidi) and a reindeer friend arrive. They explain to the Elves that the children no longer want wood, but colourful plastic toys.

       After hundreds of years of excellent service, even Santa Claus (Pete Nettleton) can see the end is near.

       On a Jerusalem hillside, two shepherds, Seth (Cally Zanik) and  Obadiah (Callum Martin Santiago Calder) are watching their flocks, when they spot Balthasar (Graeme Cross) guiding the other two wise men across the desert, as he follows the star.

       Meanwhile, in a local shopping centre, the smiling spruiking promoters, Ashley (Amanda Watson) and Toby (Reece Darch) ooze insincerity from every pore, as they encourage the panic buyers to shop even more. On the other side of the world, Haggith (Alison Arrowsmith), a Glasgow wee nyaff, is trying to do shady business in his own way.

        At Santa’s workshop, the removal man (Dylan Grimshaw) is emptying the shelves and installing Lego kits.

        In a desperate attempt to bring cheer to the season, a choir chants outside a front door, but this is the house of Bah Humbug, Mr Robinson (Adam Salathiel). Will he change and love Christmas?

Director Johnny Grim has once again, gathered a wonderfully dedicated team, who have given it their all. Marjorie DeCaux has helped Barb Walton, the wardrobe queen. There are some amazing outfits, from the pixies, to the reindeers and the wise men. The quality of the sewing and design show their dedication.

The years of experience show in Graeme Johnson’s sound and Kathryn Carney’s lighting. With quite a limited rig, they have given a colourful and lively background to every scene.

Stage managers Linda Redman, Adam Salathiel and Dan Madgwick had a huge amount of work to do, but this they did – a little slowly (mainly due to limited wings space) – but were silent, well organised and most efficient. They also supplied many of the numerous props, other coming from Marg Milne.

An AV screen at each side of the stage added greatly to the mood, and worked amazingly well at filling in on the limited scenery. The delightful seasonal photos and video were the hard work of Graeme Johnson, Denys Lunn, Graeme Cross, and Chris Thomas.

You can feel the warmth of the whole team glowing through. The script is typical of Johnny Grim, edging on the ‘PI’ border. Johnny cleverly worked in the words of 70s songs into the script, which brought many a grin to the older members of the audience. Everyone came away with broad grins, but do not forget, the show is 15+. A completely different, zany and madcap Christmas show.

This latest treat is being produced by ARENAarts – a wonderful team that is interested in giving the underdog (!) a chance – at the Latvian Centre Theatre, 60 Cleaver Terrace in Belmont, where there is plenty of free parking.

Most of this team brought you last year’s hugely successful ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’, the uproarious show that had patrons coming back for a second helping.

These performances start at 8.00 pm, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings until 23^rd August. There are matinees at 2.00 pm on Sunday the 10^th and 17^th. Children often go to the matinee, so perhaps I should warn that there is some slightly crude – but not too offensive – language. In addition, the story is quite sad in places.

The set is a bare stage with a countryside view on the backcloth; the cleverly conceived wire cages are added later. The set was designed by Jane Sherwood and Dan Madgwick; then built by them, assisted by Callum Calder, Johnny Grim, Cally Zanik and Linda Redman.

         There is a high-pitched yapping noise from the back of the theatre. A woman has found a stray canine in the street, so leads the dog (an actor in a pink tutu and fluffy crown), down the theatre aisle to the stage. This little yappy, overactive dog, Molly (Rachael Maher, great performance) has been brought to the pound!

        As Molly mingles with the other dogs, they suddenly find that the pound attendants, supervisor Hillary (Michelle Diston) and schoolgirl volunteer, Leah (Simone Diston) are building cages around them; dividing the sexes and removing their freedom.

       The Dalmatian, Measles (Jacob Duggar) and an older dog, which looks like he is a bikie’s pal, Titan (Graeme Cross) have been in the pound for some time, as has the sad old bitch, Jude (Cally Zanik) sitting quietly at the back of her cage. The two other dogs, a sexy stylish, leggy French poodle, Meg (Amanda Watson) and a bitzer, Peppa (Alison Arrowsmith) seemed to be streetwise.

        The keeper arrives with another male dog, Red (Reece Darch) who thinks he is on holiday, but the wise Socks (Willy Smeets – at his best), has obviously been trained by Michael Jackson, soon educates Red in the ways of the pound. The slightly dim Spock (Brett Shircore) befriends Red.

        When the visitors call, who will be the lucky one to be chosen? What happens to upset the schoolgirl helper?

Although I have suggested breeds, Johnny has left this to the audience’s imagination. He has amazingly created several very different breeds, with rich characters and distinctive dialogues of their own. Finley Award winner Director, Jane Sherwood has a doubly difficult task, directing ‘animals’ with all their irrational mannerisms, and next having them become human, with the everyday problems of life.

The cast had superb knowledge of the dogs they were playing, from simple tasks like lying down to sniffing each other, it was hilarious to watch. With a large cast on stage the whole time, it was essential that the dogs kept moving and showing various canine peculiarities, this the actors did with aplomb.

There was incidental, live mood music, from keyboard player Mel Kay – herself an award-winning actress. She kept the volume to a subtle level and the accompaniment was not intrusive or jarring. Danni Close had a small but effective soundscape.

Bree Vreedenburgh’s costumes were inspired, they had to show the character of the dog instantly, which they did most effectively. Very good indeed.

This was a most enjoyable and clever play. Recommended, but take a packet of tissues.