Chicago Reader - November 29, 2007

7 SANTAS

In Jeff Goode's black comedy, Santa Claus finds himself in a court-mandated 12-step program overseen by his bitter wife and attended by manifestations of six aspects of his personality, including his Christianity, business sense, and love of children. The goal is a comic deconstruction of Saint Nick, but the play is as schizophrenic as its hero: the mildly dark fun Goode has in the first act tweaking Christmas cliches in no way jibes with the second act's downright disturbing intimations of rape, murder, and child molestation. The cast of Bailiwick Repertory's rather slapdash production handles the jokes satisfactorily but seems understandably at a loss when required to take the script's excesses seriously. --Zac Thompson

Through 12/9: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 4:30 PM. Then 12/14-12/30: Fri 10 PM, Sun 4:30 PM, Sat 12/15, 10:30 PM, Wed 12/19 and 12/26, 8 PM, Bailiwick Repertory, Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-883-1090, $25.