The diverse characters at Joe's Panel Beaters face a glum year-end. Their boss, Joe, has died, leaving the failing business to his daughter. Her solution: cheap tea and cut out the Christmas party; in fact, she's hinting that there may be a problem paying salaries.
In The Credit Crunch Christmas Party! we meet the panel beaters, performed with great energy and enthusiasm, by comedian Afzal Khan, newcomer Nhlakanipho Manqele and boy, oh boy! a girl played with sass by Amy Saville.
We also meet the hard-working, big-hearted cleaner (Sam Hlophe), the wriggly watchable Shona Johnson as the useless secretary and Joe's tight-fisted daughter, the role filled by Lauren Rose.
The format is a series of character sketches, dialogues and general banter, with two entertaining monologues by Khan and lots of song-and-dance routines.
Conceptualised by Themi Venturas, the scenarios were written and directed by Chantal Snyman.
It's a fun, frothy idea reflecting real issues around relationships in the workplace, gender prejudice and, of course, financial constraints. But it's Christmas time and everybody needs to put their differences aside, swallow their pride and find a better way of getting along. And that's exactly what they do!
The first half is a good integration of song, dance and drama, with each of the characters given space to show what they are made of in the vocal department.
Here Manqele proves to have great pitch and versatility, Johnson reveals a wondrous jazzy contralto, Saville hits good notes and carries them well and Hlophe delights with her full tone and expressive sounds.
Rose's voice works best in the ensembles where she also shines with sparkling energy.
Deciding to make the best of a bad turn of events, the members of Joe's Panel Beaters work out innovative and inexpensive ways of decorating, catering and entertaining themselves, thus saving the spirit of Christmas.
The second half is a series of song-and-dance routines, but somehow the storyline gets dropped so character continuity suffers. Not that this worried the audience much; but I would have loved a few links to anchor the plot.
It's great to see young artists given an opportunity to get their teeth into work which serves to hone their talent.
The Credit Crunch Christmas Party! not only offers this valuable experience, but working with artists of the calibre of Khan, Venturas and Snyman also helps to groom them for the theatrical market. It's not great theatre but it's loads of local flavour fun.
So join the guys from Joe's and beat up a bit of festive fever!
- TheatreBIZ presents The Credit Crunch Christmas Party! at the Catalina Theatre until December 20. To book tickets, call Thandeka at 031 305 6889.