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The Shopping Complex
All three acts of the play are set during Christmas parties. Christmas is often considered a holiday that celebrates kindness, generosity, and family. However, Christmas is also a holiday that epitomizes greed and conspicuous consumption. It’s a time when wealthy families who practice the holiday lavish money on gifts for themselves and show off by buying overpriced presents for other people. In all, Christmas perfectly symbolizes the contradictions of the middle class: like most of the characters in the play, it’s defined by selfishness and selflessness, childishness and maturity, community and crass materialism.
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Christmas Symbol Timeline in Absurd Person Singular
The timeline below shows where the symbol Christmas appears in Absurd Person Singular. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act One
The play begins “last Christmas” in the kitchen of the suburban home of Sidney Hopcroft and Jane Hopcroft, both in...
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Sidney asks Jane for a “Christmas kiss,” but Jane instead says that Sidney’s tie smells like fly spray. Then Sidney notes...
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...and then shut and forgotten about. Marion also notices the washing machine, which was Sidney’s Christmas present to Jane. She notices the dial that reads, “Whites-coloreds” and jokes, “it’s apartheid,” a...
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Sidney tells Jane that he’ll watch some television now—since it’s Christmas Eve, there should be something good on. Sidney walks out, leaving Jane along in the...
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Act Two
Act Two takes place “This Christmas” in the kitchen of Geoffrey and Eva’s fourth-floor flat (apartment). The kitchen seems untidy—the appliances...
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Faintly, Eva begins to sing, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” After each verse, a guest joins in—first Marion, then Jane, then Ronald, then Sidney. In...
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Act Three
Act Three takes place “next Christmas” in the kitchen of the Brewster-Wrights’ old Victorian house. The kitchen has many modern appliances,...
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...Ronald owes Geoffrey the money, and claims that she’ll bring it up with Ronald after Christmas.
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...drinks, and the three of them toast and drink. Geoffrey notes, “Bit quieter than last Christmas, eh?” He notices the book Ronald was reading—a “saucy” thing, Ronald explains, which he found...
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...have three stitches because of his dog bite. Dick Potter is mountain-climbing in Switzerland this Christmas, meaning “We’ll have to do without old Dick to jolly us up this year.”
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...very plainly …” Marion cuts him off, saying, “For the love of God, Ronnie, it’s Christmas.” Then, she begins to weep. She tells the guests that she used to be a...
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...the end of the game, the person with the least forfeits gets a chocolate Father Christmas (i.e., Santa Claus).
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