Review: Bushfield's YULE, Y'ALL at Chaffin's Barn

Christmas and me? Yeah, we've got this sort of love/hate thing going on that I somehow always manage to forget this time of year - and which I don't realize is still alive and thriving until midway through the four-plus weeks of holiday-themed revelry leaves me quietly introspective and outrageously maudlin. It's just a part of celebrating the holiday season in our contemporary lives, right?

You can be certain that during this time of year, I'm making my way to various and sundry theaters to witness the latest Christmaslike offerings from companies large and small, but after last season's A Country Christmas, Carol - playwright/actress Lydia Bushfield's uniquely fun take on the Charles Dickens classic about the coldly restrained Ebenezer Scrooge and that whiny little cuss Tiny Tim - her newest show, now onstage at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, seemed mighty promising to kick off my season with raucous laughter and bemused sentiment.

And, truth be told, 2015's Yule, Y'all delivers the goods: headlined by some terrific performances by some of Nashville theater's favorites (Martha Wilkinson, Craig Hartline, Daniel Bissell, Lisa Marie Wright, Steven Kraski, Jennifer Richmond and Jeremy Maxwell), there are laughs aplenty, hijinks galore and enough references to pecan pie to leave you craving some despite the bounteous buffet that's served up at ye ol' Barn prior to every performance.

Much to her credit, Bushfield creates characters who are mostly original and memorable, but more to the point she writes dialogue that seems natural and rather restrained, especially in comparison to a lot of other dinner theater farce. And Yule, Y'all has its farcical elements down pat, with enough running in and out of scenes by various characters to keep the audience on its toes in order to keep up with the well-paced comedy.

Bushfield's play takes place "anywhere south of the Mason/Dixon," the playbill informs us, and focuses upon the far-flung Wilson family who are striving mightily to join together for a Christmas eve fete at the home of Francine (Wilkinson, in another of her patented southern homemaker roles that she imbues with humor and grace) and Fred (Hartline, whose interaction with Wilkinson is fairly redolent of suburban family realness). They've been married for 30-plus years and, apparently, this is the first time that Francine has taken the notion to host a huge family gathering in order to give her newly born grandchildren (there are four of 'em, dagnabit!) a strong foundation of family love and support to shepherd them through their coming life.

Francine's a good woman, Fred's good man and their twin sons (Sam and Dan, both played with vigorous charm by Steven Kraski) are generally good boys, as well (Dan manages an auto parts store, while Sam works for the city sanitation department), married to good girls (Lurlene and Peggy, each played to comic perfection by the too-long-gone-from-the-stage Lisa Marie Wright). Dan and Peggy have triplets (Merle, Earl and Pearl - you know, they have to be Walking Dead fans, am I right?), while Sam and Lurlene have a baby boy named Booger Bear Wilson (named after Lurlene's beloved childhood pet).

Bissell effectively plays both the family patriarch Walter and his wife, the dour Myra with an ease that belies his youth. Jeremy Maxwell gives a subtle, but altogether well-conceived, performance as Buck Walker, the husband/boyfriend (I was never quite sure) of Fred's younger sister Billie Joe, played by the amazingly versatile and thoroughly committed Jennifer Richmond, who also takes on the role of her own daughter Billie June, a 15-year-old, selfie-obsessed, put-upon and only slightly rebellious young girl. Richmond's two roles are wonderfully defined and delineated, showing off her talents to great effect.

Bushfield directs her cast with a well-informed comic sensibility that propels the action along at a good pace. Her blocking of scenes is fairly masterful, as the cast's entrances and exits are so well choreographed that you may, from time to time, swear you saw two Richmonds, two Wrights or two Kraskis onstage at the same time. Some of the incidents are far-fectched, of course, which is a requisite of good farce, but everything seems anchored in a super-reality that could only come from the mind of a playwright focused on entertaining her audience, while relating a holiday parable to them in the process.

Yule, Y'all continues through December 27 and since holidays are always tremendously busy at Chaffin's Barn, you would be well-advised to quickly check out the availability of tickets if you want to compare your own family to the fictional Wilsons before it's too late!

• Yule, Y'all. Written and directed by Lydia Bushfield. Produced by Janie and John Chaffin. Presented by Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville. Through December 27. For details, go to www.dinnertheatre.com; for reservations, call (615) 646-9977.

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