A Christmas Story

Left to right: Elliot Whitehorn-Gillam, Charlee McKinlay, Madeline Hudson, Aslyn Cannon, Blythe Hallford, Violet Young

Nine-year-old Ralphie Parker spends most of his time dodging a bully and dreaming of his ideal Christmas gift, a genuine Red Ryder BB gun. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother, his teacher, and even Santa Claus himself, but receives little encouragement.

Philip Grecian's stage adaptation incorporates other incidents from humourist Jean Shepherd’s semi-autobiographical collections of short stories, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories.

Left to right: Blythe Hallford, Jason Bowen, Jo-anne Smith, Elliot Whitehorn-Gillam, Charlee McKinlay, Piper McKinlay, Violet Young.

The play contains all the elements of the beloved motion picture, including the family's temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys' experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie's father winning a lamp shaped like a woman's leg in a net stocking; Ralphie's fantasy scenarios and more.

We would like to acknowledge that this production takes place on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples. We honour and give thanks to the land, its inhabitants and their enduring cultures.

Jean Shepherd

Jean Shepherd was an American storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, and actor. Born in Chicago in 1921, he began a radio broadcasting career in 1946, eventually settling at WOR radio in New York City.

Shepherd wrote a series of humorous short stories about growing up in northwest Indiana and its steel towns, many of which he first told on his programs, then published in Playboy magazine and later assembled into books. He died in 1999.

Philip Grecian

Philip Grecian's adaptations, many of them radio plays, include It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, The Great Gatsby, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Grecian has also worked as a film and video writer and director.

Admission $20 (plus Grand Theatre surcharge). Tickets available through Kingston Grand Box Office, 613-530-2050 and online, until 2 p.m. on day of performance, and at the door (cash, debit, Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay or Android Pay) on performance nights when available. Seniors and members $16 at the door on Thursdays only. Children and students $10.

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