The Christmas Foundling SGN Review

Excerpt from SGN’s Bits & Bytes

by Milton W. Hamlin – SGN A&E Writer

TAPROOT CHARMS WITH BRET HARTE’S CHRISTMAS FOUNDLING
Characters and situations from numerous Bret Harte tales have been compiled and combined by playwright Norman Alan to create “a new holiday classic,” The Christmas Foundling, Taproot Theatre’s warm and lovely entry into the Christmas season sweepstakes that Emerald City theaters offer every year. While the overall effect is slight, there’s much to like – and much to enjoy – in this solid production at Taproot. The theater, which makes its home in the Greenwood district of North Seattle, has a loyal subscription audience that clearly loved every minute of this holiday fable.

Using the characters and situation from Harte’s The Lucky Of Roaring Camp (California gold miners in the 1850s become substitute fathers for a newborn babe), Allen’s script stays with the mining men as the boy grows from an infant into a young man. A long lost aunt of the boy arrives from Massachusetts to complicate the tale, which stays true to the spirit of Harte, a writer once more popular than Mark Twain, his contemporary.

Karen Lund’s direction is solidly on target and the physical production is topnotch. Performances are uniformly good, with Grant Goodeve, Jason Adkins and Casi Wilkerson heading the cast.

The warm-hearted show continues evenings and Saturday matinees through December 27. High recommendation. Ticket details at (206) 781-9707.