Bette Mac-Donald’s character Mary Morrison stars in her church’s nativity play in Tis the Season. (Photo by Murdock Smith)

Festive show in Year 5, or ‘wood anniversary’

By Elissa Barnard - The Chronicle Herald

Bette MacDonald can't believe Tis the Season is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

The show that she, her husband Maynard Morrison and musician Ralph Dillon first threw together for a one-night performance at Wolfville's Festival Theatre is now rewritten, remixed and ready for a provincial tour of 14 shows.

"I thought we'd maybe do it for a couple of years," says MacDonald, on the phone from her Sydney home. "I didn't think we'd have a fifth anniversary.

"It is the wood anniversary; we looked it up."

The comedy and music revue is becoming a Christmas tradition for many Nova Scotians, particularly in Truro, where Tis the Season runs four times.

"It's very much a tradition for us, too," says MacDonald. "We look forward to it every year. We can't wait to get on the road. I love this time of year so we're into it."

Tis the Season 5 features skits most loved by audiences over the last five years, including the first skit in which Mary Morrison appeared in a nativity play at church. (Father Gillis is her flustered Joseph).

Wayne Tomko, with pals Martin and Cujo, is back with a plan to raise money for the holidays and Marjorie, the stressed-out Christmas control freak, is featured in a beloved skit and a new skit about her, Donnie and Da's family.

"Marjorie's a very hyper woman and fun to play. She's invited people over for Christmas dinner and she didn't think they would come. I know people like that. They've invested so much emotionally into the holidays, there's no way their expectations can be met."

In fact, MacDonald admits she's "a bit" like Marjorie.

As soon as Tis the Season wraps on Dec. 17 she and Morrison have to prepare for a huge Christmas Eve dinner at their house.

"There will be all these people and there will be four dogs wandering around and two are very cranky. Poor old Boston is deaf and blind.

"You want everything to go well and you want it to be very nice." However, she's working on being less anxious. "I've learned to chill out a bit. Maynard's great that way. He's so laid-back."

MacDonald's other Christmas tradition, which remains sacrosanct, is making fudge with her mother.

"Our fudge-making day is the 19th at 9 a.m. I have it right here. That's one of my favourite days of the year."

This year MacDonald's teenage nieces are coming, "which is great because they're stronger than the two of us, though Val, my mother, she can still beat up the fudge like nobody's business.

"It'll be the four of us and my siblings, especially my brother Dan; he's always finds his way there. He could be across the country."

Dan loves fudge. "It impresses me the amount of sugar that guy can consume."

MacDonald's aunts and uncles and a childhood spent in the Catholic church led her to create her most famous character, Mary Morrison.

She can't remember how long ago it was but Mary predates the Cape Breton Summertime Revue that starred both MacDonald and Morrison and is a template for this show, which this year includes MacDonald's original songs, a traditional song and a Ronnie MacEachern tune.

"Joella Foulds and I were doing a show and I wanted to create a character who was a senior who was listened to."

At the time MacDonald was thinking about how the "wisest, most experienced members of our community weren't listened to."

She wanted a loud, blunt and insightful senior. Ironically, two of Mary's roots are in men, "She has the voice of my Uncle Joe R. and of an old friend of my father's."

The friend of MacDonald's father, Donnie, would always say "good," leading MacDonald to coin Mary's famous "good, dear, good."

"He'd call up and say, 'Is Donnie there?' And I'd say, 'Yes,' and he'd say, 'Oh, good, good, good.' He'd get six goods in before I could get my father."

MacDonald, who spent the summer in Halifax shooting the CBC comedy series Mr. D. starring Gerry Dee, wants two things for Christmas.

For the world, she wants "what everybody wants: peace, happiness, kindness."

"I was watching this podcast with Stephen Fry, whom I love and admire, and he was talking of all the qualities you can have and the one that trumps all of them is kindness. It solves everything."

For herself for Christmas she wants to see Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel perform live.

Bob Dylan has been her idol since she was a tween. "Dylan can do no wrong for me but lately Bryn has stolen my heart."

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