Blitzen!
NOTES FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
Blitzen, is a simple Christmas story about a little boy who writes Santa to ask that his room which was destroyed by a violent hurricane be fixed by Christmas. This idea came about during the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989—a category 5 hurricane that slammed into the Charleston area in October of that year. We had twelve trees on the house and were in the process of repairing the damage. Our daughter had written to Santa to have her room repaired and I wondered how a family (and Santa) might cope with this.
The play begins with a boat thrust through a young boy’s room—a room devastated by the hurricane. I remember when I submitted the play to Dramatic Publishing, the editor wrote to ask if that wasn’t a bit far-fetched and I had to reply “no, boats ended up in all sorts of places” in that storm.
When the play premiered in 1992, it had special meaning to Charleston audiences who had personally weathered Hurricane Hugo. But the play is about more than a hurricane, and you don’t have to have lived through one to enjoy it. Blitzen, in the end, is about the power of believing, not only in the magic of Christmas, but in each other. And in this case, it’s the magic of a big brother who rises to the occasion to help Ole Santa out.
Julian Wiles,
Playwright