By Julian Wiles.
Product Code: F49000
Full-length Play
Comedy
Cast size: 4m., 4w., 6 boys, 7 girls, extras if desired.
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Mix together a batch of fruitcakes, three dozen Christmas trees, 10,000 outdoor Christmas lights, a chicken pox epidemic, two southern spinsters, an estranged old man, a lost cat named Tutti Frutti and a Christmas hog named Buster and you've got the recipe for a fun-filled and touching evening of holiday cheer. Into this world comes Jamie, a kid who has run away from home and come as far as his money will take him. At first, he thinks this town's inhabitants are "nuttier than fruitcakes," but soon he comes to admire, appreciate and adore this nutty little town. A moving story of alienation, understanding and reconciliation, FrUiTCaKeS provides audiences with a heaping helping of holiday warmth and Christmas cheer.
FrUiTCaKeS is a funny, "down-home" show with fun characters and a good ending.
This is one play that I, as the director, never got bored with. I continued to laugh at the jokes and characters throughout all eight weeks of performance! I would love to see more scripts by this author.
This was one of the most enjoyable theatre experiences I've had. We were able to make a positive connection with our community. They loved the play.
This heartwarming story with a large and flexible cast was so much fun for my students to produce. The audience loved it!
This is a beautifully written portrait of the importance of family and how Christmas is a time to celebrate that.
We have never had such an overwhelming audience response as we did with FrUiTCaKeS. A funny, heartwarming, yet thought provoking play that had our audience laughing one minute, crying the next. Highly recommended.
The best received play we've ever done. We've performed this play twice before; but with the author's new rewrite and fewer sets, it's a tighter, happier play.
Massive set with lots of props.
Keep the set simple and versatile.
Act I, Scene Three: "Buster the Christmas Hog" For our production we had motors to operate the tail and head (which were separate pieces). I think we found a mechanised sign from someplace and modified it. We used a flashpot for the explosion (but in most places you need a pyrotech license for this). If you want a simple effect, just surround him with chaser Christmas lights; for the short-out, just plug and unplug, add a recorded hum if you like. (You can probably download that from the Internet ... "google" for sound effects, burn on a CD and play.) If you wanted a popping sound, you could get a starter pistol from a sporting goods store and fire it offstage, or the person "working" on Buster could fire it behind the plywood cut-out. The key is for actors around this to react ... you can probably borrow a CO2 fire extinguisher from the local fire department ... be sure it's CO2 and not a chemical extinguisher.
We literally blew the audience's socks off with the final note of "2001." We had three air cannons that exploded streamers and confetti all over the auditorium. The cast was not told before the first night.
Location | City | State | Opens | Closes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Theatre Coppell | Coppell | TX | 12/05/2025 | 12/21/2025 |
Merely Players Community Theatre Incorporated | Mankato | MN | 12/12/2025 | 12/21/2025 |
Kathryn Wood, The Front Porch Players, Jonesboro, Ga.