A Christmas Story: The Play
Humorist Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in the midwest in the 1940s
follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB
gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother,
his teacher and even Santa Claus himself at Higbee’s Department Store. The
consistent response: “You’ll shoot your eye out!” All the elements from the
beloved motion picture are here, including the family’s temperamental
exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys’ experiment with a
wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie’s
father winning a lamp shaped like a woman’s leg in a net stocking; Ralphie’s
fantasy scenarios and more. A Christmas Story has become a theatrical
holiday perennial.
