If
Pine was 20 minutes shorter, it would be a pretty much perfect show. While
Hampstead Theatre's main house doesn't tend to do a Christmas production, the
Downstairs studio has made its own tradition of programming a twisted version of a
festive special. We've had
disastrous office parties and
dysfunctional family reunions, and this year Jacqui Honess-Martin's play takes us to a large lot selling
Christmas trees - not a cheap outfit on a street corner but part of a chain selling
quality trees for up to £150 apiece (Polly Sullivan's design makes the audience rows
of trees on sale, into which the characters can disappear to work or get off with
each other.) The temporary workers there must be well-paid too, as they tend to
return year after year. A graduate and aspiring journalist, Gabby (Hannah Britland)
is there for the fourth year running as her career goals haven't worked out. She'll
be joining her boyfriend in Germany in the New Year but for her last December at
Festive Pines her boss Sami (David Mumeni) has chosen to make her manager of this
particular outlet.
