Christmas is almost here, which can only mean one thing when it comes to 7 Stages. That’s right, it’s Krampus time! For those who aren’t familiar this demonic figure from German folklore, he’s Santa’s helper, of sorts. Only instead of simply leaving naughty kids off the gift list, he beats them with sticks and steals them away in a basket! But when the Little 5 Points Rockstar Orchestra joins forces with Syrens of the South, the 7 Stages Handbell Choir and various other creative groups that dabble in the darker arts to bring the fourth installment of the Krampus Xmas Dec. 19-21, it will be a devilishly different take on the story you may have seen over the past three years. And before the Krampus creeps onto the stage, Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to script writers Andrew McGill and James McDougald about how surprisingly nice this otherwise naughty holiday tale will be this year.
This Krampus show has an elaborately varied cast each year. What are your roles in this year’s show?
McGill: We are the co-writers. We do an original script every year. This year I am fortunate enough to star in it and also direct it.
McDougald: He’s really pulling double duty on this one.
McGill: Quadruple.
McDougald: Triple.
McGill: Quadruple. That’s more fun.
McDougald: The process this year has been phenomenal. We have such a long history working with this show at 7 Stages, going back seven or eight years now…
McGill: Oh, five years. But it started with 7 Stages coming to Rob Thompson, owner of Java Lords, to do Jesus Christ Superstar. After that, at least once a year there’s been a collaboration between Java Lords and 7 Stages. Christmas with the Devil was our first Christmas show and that was a combination of an original show about Santa getting crucified and an adaptation of Iron Maiden‘s The Number of the Beast. After that, we learned about this very bizarre Christmas character named Krampus. We took that and put together a show the next year about him. Then it was just, like, “Well, obviously we need to do that every year.” But we’re very adamant about not doing the same Christmas show every year. It’s very important to us. A lot of theater companies run a Christmas show for two months and it’s their money maker; they can just pull the same actors and do the same show they’ve done all their lives. So it’s not hard.
McDougald: This is a three-day rock concert event that also acts as a fund raiser for 7 Stages.
McGill: When people come to see it, they expect to see the same people and the same music, for the most part. But it’s crazy different every year.
McDougald: This year it has kind of acted as a response to a number of things we’ve seen on stage this past year, as well as to help the show grow. In the past, we’ve just kept making it more and more violent and bleak. This year we decided to keep a little bit of the cynicism because it’s funny, but I wound up seeing quite possibly the worst show this past year, which was a production of Doctor Faustus. I went, “Oh, this would be so funny if the guy was just aware of the things associated with making a deal with the devil.” So I brought the idea to Andrew about two months ago and I went, “We need to scrap pretty much everything we’ve done. It’s going to be Faust this year. You’re going to be Faust.” Slowly the pieces started falling into place for everybody else.We decided that Satan would have a daughter this time around, the joke being that God put his kid up for adoption, basically. [Satan] decides to raise Damian on his own, so she’s 14 or 15, really coming of age, and he’s trying to teach her what it is to be the Antichrist.
McGill: That was actually in our original script. So when we decided to introduce this character of Faust, he obviously summons the Devil. The problem is that the Devil is too busy raising his teenage daughter and they’re at the mall. So he sends Krampus, who is a newly acquired demon because Santa works at the mall, as well. All of the normal characters are trapped in the mall and are trying to do Christmas. So we have Krampus and this new character of Faust basically trying to get all these people back to them so they can find the meaning of Christmas. But it never works out, then there’s a dance party.
Is Rob reprising his role as Satan this year?
McDougald: He’s absolutely brilliant. This year he has a lot more to play with because in the past he’s primarily been focused on the music. The band has incorporated more singers so he can be more in the show. So we get to see a little more of his character. We’ve gotten pieces of who he is over the past five years, so he’s like a rock star party god. But when we meet him this year he’s in a slightly more domesticated place and he’s really rediscovering how awesome it is being the Lord of Darkness.
McGill: It’s just funny to put Satan in a place where he is horribly uncomfortable. There’s a line where he literally talks to God and says, “You will never know the joys of fatherhood.”
In a Christmas show?
McGill: Yep. We wanted to take all these characters and have the show, but not pound down the Christmas message. It’s obviously Christmas. There’s nothing you can do about that, so we might as well have a show that has all these familiar characters people have seen over the last four years. At the end of the day, it has a good message, which is, “Life is meaningless. Might as well party.”
McDougald: That’s what Christmas is about. In the past it was the last festival before the lights were turned off until spring. Yes, enjoy things to the fullest. Enjoy the season. But also don’t forget about family. All the scenes with Satan and Damian have this nice sweetness to them.
McGill: Honestly, it’s really weird to hear Rob come at these lines with this little girl, being like, “I’m so proud of you,” while in full Satan makeup with horns. To hear him be tender inside that character is really weird.
McDougald: And you’ve got to feel bad for the guy because number two down in Hell is trying to stage a revolution because [Satan] hasn’t done anything in 14 years, and he’s just trying to maintain his family and career.
McGill: Then you’ve got this guy who’s literally performing every magical ritual ever, out of boredom, to get [the Devil] there. And the Devil’s like, “Ugh! This guy again? Send the Krampus. He doesn’t want that Krampus? Send him sexy Krampus.” Krampus comes and Faust is like, “No. I want something with tits to come and talk to me.” So Krampus goes back to the mall and tells the Devil, “This guy doesn’t want me.” So he gets transformed into a chick with tits. So it’s the same character, but with tits.
So we’ll see multiple versions of Krampus this year?
McDougald: We wanted to go sexy with it this year as opposed to just violence and poop humor. You’ll see the phenomenal work that Shane Morton has done for us in the past. You’ll see cameo appearances from past characters and costumes. There’s a very high respect for the way things have happened, but this time’s there’s more show.
McGill: We’re trying to move away from trying to take the songs we’ve done over the last couple years and introduce them into the show. There’s only so many ways you can do some of these songs and so many ways you can beat up Santa Claus. Trust me, I’ve been Santa Claus three times and have been beaten up three times! We just wanted to go somewhere else with that and I think we’ve found subtle ways of having the songs be in between scenes where the songs are vignettes. You’ve got Faust trying to be evil and Satan desperately trying not to be good. Then they meet at a point and decide they are both OK.
McDougald: We have the Baphomettes coming back this year, Shane’s creature creations, which are awesome, and the Little 5 Points Rockstar Orchestra is awesome.
McGill: We have Prentice Suspensions coming back. We have them every year because there’s nothing crazier to look at on stage than someone hooking themselves in their flesh, then getting hung 20 feet in the air. And they do it because they love that. The looks on their faces when they’re swinging in the air suspended from hooks through their flesh is honestly fascinating and beautiful. It’s crazy.
http://www.7stages.org/special-events/krampus-xmas/