O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy, Kay Meek Arts Centre, Dec. 10 and 11. For more information visit .
If you have tickets to Canadian clown duo James and Jamesy鈥檚 O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy running December 10 and 11 at Kay Meek Centre, expect opportunities for a little audience participation.
Throughout the comedy, which is touring North America for its third season and quickly becoming a Christmas classic, audience members are encouraged to interact with the comedians 鈥� and with one another.
Alastair Knowles, who plays Jamesy, says attendees shouldn鈥檛 be surprised if they find themselves donning costumes, dancing with the person sitting next to them, making animal noises, yelling out spontaneously or speaking gibberish. Some may have the chance to play characters onstage (think sea creatures or carollers). The best part is it all happens spontaneously 鈥揳nd without a drop of alcohol, which isn鈥檛 served at the show.
And while Knowles admits that some theatre-goers might be turned off by the silliness, he says most embrace the opportunity to feel like a kid again.
鈥淭o get a roomful of a few hundred adults to be willing to play together is a challenging embrace but I think that鈥檚 part of the excitement, and what makes it successful. They go: 鈥業 can鈥檛 believe I did that,鈥欌�� Knowles explains.
O Christmas Tea is the story of two British friends, James and Jamesy, who meet for a cup of tea. 鈥淎ll we鈥檙e doing is trying to have a tea party,鈥� says Knowles. 鈥淏ut in that simple act, these tangential conversations lead us into these whimsical worlds where James is just trying to hold on to reality and the audience is trying to hold on to their reality too, until the imagination and the adventure takes over,鈥� he says.
The Canadian comedy duo created the show in 2011 as an ode to the British comedies they grew up watching. They improvised a skit where two British characters meet. 鈥淎nd what do British characters do when they get together? They have tea,鈥� says Knowles.
While Jamesy is the proper British gentleman who lives in a logical world, James is a recluse that has a wild imagination and adores the absurd. 鈥淭hese two characters come together and challenge each other to embrace the other鈥檚 perspective,鈥� Knowles continues.
While the pair are both Canadian, you wouldn鈥檛 be able to tell based on their on-stage accents. 鈥淚 grew up being on airplanes a lot and I watched Mr. Bean very frequently,鈥� Knowles says in an impeccable British English. 鈥淭hat sort of properness and absurdity is particularly joyous. It鈥檚 very proper and yet it鈥檚 absolutely ridiculous and a lot of things in life are like that if you look at them through a certain lens. They are both perfectly logical and perfectly illogical,鈥� says Knowles.
What sets O Christmas Tea apart from other Christmas classics, like The Nutcracker, is that it combines a mix of genres, including physical comedy and improvisation. 鈥淚 think a lot of people haven鈥檛 been exposed to this kind of theatre show. You don鈥檛 watch the show from the audience like you鈥檙e watching TV. You feel like you鈥檙e there,鈥� says Aaron Malkin, who plays James.
This is the most ambitious tour for the duo, who will be performing 20 shows in 17 cities in December. Like any good Christmas classic, audiences only seem to grow more fond of O Christmas Tea as the years pass. Since O Christmas Tea began touring in December 2015, the number and size of venues have increased. 鈥淲e know from our ticket sales record that a bunch of people are repeat attendees. We鈥檙e thrilled that we have become some people鈥檚 Nutcracker,鈥� says Knowles.
O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy runs Monday, Dec. 10 and Tuesday, Dec. 11 at 7.30 p.m. at Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. For tickets and showtimes, visit听 jamesandjamesy.com/upcoming.
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