The Long Christmas Ride Home September 5, 2008

It's Christmas, and a family of five is headed to their grandparents' house for food and presents. But "over the river and through the woods" it's not. This family is more than a little dysfunctional. The parents' relationship is strained. The children squabble in the back seat, and the son is feeling sick. And after their holiday dinner disintegrates into verbal warfare, the family heads home in the worsening weather, and suddenly finds itself on the brink of an abyss both literal and figurative. What sets the play apart is Vogel's remarkable approach. The children are portrayed by near-life-size Bunraku puppets, and Vogel has layered the painful events with striking visual elements and music and dance, making for a magical and haunting piece of theatre.