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The Great Tinsel War of 1979 by Christopher Soucy

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  • Julie Zaffarano:
    13 Mar. 2024
    “ Yes, yes, yes -- Tinsel wars were definitely a "thing" in the 1970s! Christopher Soucy captures the absurdity of traditions where we dig our toes in deep and shows us how we can laugh at ourselves instead. Well done. ”
  • Morey Norkin:
    12 Aug. 2023
    “ The tension and the laughs escalate at a frantic pace in this clever look at holiday traditions. The narration that places the inter-family squabble into historical context is simply brilliant. So much to love about this play, including a character who could pass for George Santos, Jr. Obviously a great addition to any holiday themed festival, but truly a comedy that should be welcome year-round. ”
  • Curtis Barber:
    17 Apr. 2023
    “ The Great Tinsel War of 1979 has got a great pace, and each time the door opens, another zany character arrives. The Academic, relating each strategic movement in the war, sets the stage for a hilarious story. ”
  • Claudia Haas:
    28 Mar. 2023
    “ Disclosure: I was raised by a father who put on the tinsel 1 strand at a time. Really, Lorne and Molly - don’t even go there. Soucy opens up the Christmas traditions that are sacred. Choose your fights or you might wind up with children that create a thermo-nuclear war. Tinsel escalates. Soucy escalates. To throw tinsel or to place tinsel? Soucy asks this in earnest. Think carefully before you answer. Don’t endanger your holly jolly Christmas. (I now await the Fruitcake Wars play.) ”
  • Donald E. Baker:
    27 Mar. 2023
    “ Second only to how to hang a toilet paper roll, how to hang tinsel on a Christmas tree has to be one of the great sources of friction between couples. Here Christopher Soucy sends such a dispute over the edge and over the top, involving not only the couple but their families. Then he packages it like a retrospective on the History Channel. It's hilarious. It would be the perfect spark for a holiday short play festival. ”
  • Daniel Prillaman:
    17 Jan. 2023
    “ War changes people. It's why Alli and I work at hotels during Christmas. There's less space to decorate a large tree, which means there's less opportunity to suddenly instigate a multi-generational war of dastardly, cutting barbs that irrevocably destroy the soul. Fights are quiet in the annals of history. But wars? They are studied. In academia. Forever. There was a time that I did not e'en know of tinsel or what it was. How I long for that time! But the innocent cannot stay so forever, and sides must be chosen. This is a hilarious play. ”
  • Vince Gatton:
    10 Jan. 2023
    “ Well, that escalated quickly! A disagreement over proper tree-decorating techniques escalates wildly out of control, stretching forward and backward through time and across two families, exposing secrets and hilariously catastrophic consequences -- all under the watchful eye and droll tongue of an omniscient narrator. A late, almost-casual reveal punched a gut-laugh out of me. A hilarious and grim holiday gem. ”
  • Paul Donnelly:
    8 Jan. 2023
    “ What kind of monster pitches tinsel onto a tree willy-nilly instead of hanging it strand by strand? I guess I'm not capable of being a neutral observer in the great tinsel war. Thankfully we have an academic narrator who is and who is also a great parody of the pompous talking heads that populate so many documentaries. In addition to skewering holiday traditions, this play offers a fun and funny look at a variety of family dynamics in a most enjoyable ten pages. ”
  • Scott Sickles:
    3 Jan. 2023
    “ War is hell.

    Even the little ones. The forgotten ones. The ones even the winners forget to write about. The internecine battles leading to a Carthaginian peace of awkward meals, sidelong glares, and a lifetime of Yuletide bitterness.

    Even when both parties are wrong because the only tinsel that really makes sense is the long strands that look like cheap boas, but I digress...

    Astride the beast of propaganda press the thighs of truth! Herein, a narrator reminds us how seemingly minuscule events, like tossing tinsel or assassinated archdukes, escalate into global schisms.

    Soul-rending and bleak! A perfect Christmas. ”
  • Christopher Plumridge:
    2 Jan. 2023
    “ Haha, I love the use of the Academic who guides us through this terrible Christmas conflict! The notes they come out with the resulting future are hilarious yet scarily believable!
    I am now thankful to my stance of letting my wife decorate the tree each year and smile while congratulating her on a good job done, for I have avoided such conflicts and time stopping academics wandering in! Great fun! ”

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