For six years William Gibson's offbeat Christmas play with the wordy title, The Butterfingers Angel, Mary and Joseph, Herod the Nut, and the Slaughter Of Twelve Hit Carols in a Pear Tree, has been a crowd-pleasing holiday favorite for Bunbury Theater patrons. After all those years it's remarkable how fresh this seventh presentation seems under Robin Hunter's direction and with a cast that never overdoes the laugh cues. This is the kind of show that has virgin Mary (Vanessa Cox) rebuffing Joseph (Richard Williams) before she decides to marry him by telling him he's too old for her and "your eyes crawl over me like ants." Ben Lacy is delightful and endearing as the bumbling, befuddled young angel of the Lord sent to earth to set up the virgin birth.
Williams and Cox are splendid in navigating the plot's vicissitudes, whether wacky or serious, and in making their relationship grow into something ultimately touching. Having three loutish brothers of Mary become the "we three kings of Orient are" in act two is one of Gibson's cleverest conceits. Better still, having one of the three kings (Jeff Hadley) dress and speak as Elvis succeeds in bringing down the house. For good measure Gibson throws in a talking tree and animals -- a cow, a sheep, and a donkey -- who don't hesitate to speak their minds in this decidedly different Biblical recounting.
