It takes a village to raise a child, even when the village is a mining camp in the Sierras during the California gold rush of 1850. That’s where a lone outcast woman finds shelter with a pair of prospectors, only hours before giving birth to a son and dying in the effort. Though wholly ignorant of parenting skills, the men vow to care for the orphan, whose presence soon transforms the band of bachelors into a fellowship united in fraternal loyalty and affection. The arrival of a city-bred spinster aunt searching for her missing kin threatens this pantheistic community, precipitating debate over their young charge's future. Ultimately, though, the solution lies in compromise, tolerance and shared values. The unusually brief lead-up to Christmas in 2019 made for overcrowding of holiday show schedules resulting in small audiences throughout the city, but the greatest loss is the sparse attendance for this little parable, whose quiet charm, diverse characterizations, and down-home serenades under Danne E. Taylor's unobtrusive direction are as far from the seasonal glut of squeaking jingle-belled elves and glitter-spitting angels as its cozy Uptown storefront stage is from the kaleidoscopic clamor of the big-budget extravaganzas a few blocks south. Audiences have six more performances to catch this highly original Christmas story rooted in the American experience—or, alternatively, to persuade Pride Films & Plays to remount it next year, opening in mid-November in order to build momentum by the first fa-la-la of 2020.
