In-Laws, Outlaws & Other People (That Should Be Shot).

When the pair of performers to open a show (the consistently excellent Jarrod Chave and Annie Gladdis) have timing, energy, chemistry – plus impressive enunciation – it’s a good sign you’re in for a winner. As more and more of this large cast file in and fill the stage, the fun increases, and the experience evolves into a warm, gentle, amusing look at the way that families – American or otherwise - often behave at Christmas time.

The actors, by and large, happily manage to locate the ideal balance between sympathy and caricature, which gets us on side with them and caring about the outcome of the play. Though things quickly take a turn into the silly and the surreal upon the arrival of unwelcome-but-hilarious non-family visitors (played brilliantly by Adam Schultz and James Barbary), it’s easy to go with the flow and find plenty of laughs – a number of them generated by Karina Black’s delightful costume design.

Credit is definitely due to the direction of Erik Strauts, who orchestrates the action with expertise, and manages to keep our interest even as the script’s momentum starts to stall on a couple of occasions. By the second act – despite a noticeable number of wobbly or missing U.S. accents - the people on stage actually start to feel not only like a believable family, but one that you really wouldn’t mind taking you in for the festive season.

Anthony Vawser