It’s Christmas Eve and the annual fancy dress party at matriarch Maggie’s house is about to begin - the mince pies are in the oven, the festive tunes are playing and Ben’s debuting another classic costume… a giant oven-ready turkey. Three generations of the same family together again. But beneath this shiny spectacle, the bickering and resentments from Christmases past have seemingly left their mark, threatening to overflow into Christmas present and Christmases to come.

But, surely, whatever’s happened over the years can be forgiven and forgotten - after all, it’s Christmas. Christmas is love, Christmas is peace, a time for hating and fighting to cease…?

David Lewis’ darkly festive comedy puts an unfamiliar spin on the familiar tale of powder keg family Christmases and explores how the most wonderful time of the year can also be the worst. Lewis returns to Hampstead Downstairs following Sunspots in 2015. His other theatre credits include Misconceptions (Northampton/UK Tour), How To Be Happy and Seven Year Twitch (both Orange Tree Theatre).

Donnacadh O’Briain makes his Hampstead debut. His recent theatre credits include Olivier Award-winning Rotterdam (Theatre503/59E59, New York/West End), Always Orange (RSC) and My World Has Exploded A Little Bit (Edinburgh Fringe).

Diana Quick is best known for her role in the celebrated 1981 television adaption of Brideshead Revisited. Her recent film credits include The Death of Stalin and television includes The Living and The Dead and The Missing. 

This production has been kindly supported by James Roose-Evans (Frontier Theatre Productions).