THE CHRISTMAS APPEAL

Four gifted narrators bring listeners this holiday treat told through emails. A dozen members of the Fairway Players, an English amateur theater group, discuss their upcoming pantomime of "Jack and the Beanstalk." Their emails reveal the essence of each writer--their subtle power grabs, petty jealousies, and barely concealed hatreds. With so many characters, it could have been difficult to identify each speaker. Happily, Aysha Kala, Daniel Philpott, Rachel Adedeji, and Sid Sagar so deftly individualize the dialogue that the production sounds like it has more than four narrators. The story includes a dead body and crime solving, but what's best is its dry humor and wonderfully depicted characters. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2023]