A Christmas Twist
by The Illegitimate Players, Doug Armstrong , Keith Cooper, Maureen Morley

A very funny satire of Dickensian excesses about Christmas and poor people and the rich people who don't care about them … A CHRISTMAS TWIST is bursting with humor that makes a mockery of Christmas sentimentality.

Perfect theatre for the holiday season.

"TWIST blends two works by its victim author; grafted onto the familiar parable of Ebenezer and his spirits are guest villains Fagin and Mr Bumble from 'Oliver Twist.' The title character is twentysomething Tiny Twist, a gangly orphan waif who hates gruel (the Cratchits' favorite dish) and whose crutch keeps getting stuck in cracks.

Bumble and Fagin mercilessly exploit Twist (despite the lad's klutziness as a pickpocket) until Bob Cratchit impulsively adopts the tall tot.

The villains scheme to get Twist back, but in the mock-violent conclusion a redeemed Scrooge exposes their foul plot … abounds with Illegitimate irreverence, like a Ghost of Christmas Past who grouses about always having to fly from one stranger's dreary memory to the next.

Along with the regulation chains worn by Marley's ghost are some keepsake accessories he added for texture.

The Cratchits' idea of forced merriment is to play 'blind man's bluff' with a real blind girl and to share ghoulish holiday wishes.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come uses a step stool to tower over Scrooge and communicates entirely through charades … [a] good night of wicked travesty … inspired humbug."

—Lawrence Bommer, The Chicago Tribune