A Child's Christmas in Wales

A Menomonie Christmas tradition returns December 14th as Jim Miller brings back his solo performance of Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales to the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts. The theatre professor and actor has performed his solo rendition of the beloved holiday short story since 1990 and for many in the Menomonie area attending the annual recitation of Thomas' classic memoir has become an essential part of their own seasonal celebration. With only a few props and simple set pieces, Miller gives voice to the author's recollection of his boyhood in Swansea, Wales "in those years around the sea town corner now, and out of all sound except for the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep." The poet remembers Christmas in the 1920's as a time of ice cakes and blazing pudding, postmen and snowmen, caroling at strange dark doors and snowballing the neighborhood cats. "There are always uncles at Christmas," he recalls, as well as an increasingly inebriated aunt, useless and useful presents, and occasionally a parlor full of firemen. Poignant but never grossly sentimental, seasonal yet secular, A Child's Christmas in Wales is an ideal Christmas event for all ages, and as always there is every possibility that candy may be thrown from the stage. The 30 minute performance begins at 7:30 pm. There is no admission charge, but patrons are requested to bring an appropriate food item that will be donated to the Stepping Stones food pantry.