Eight Blacktip Island residents dressed in home-made abominable snowman costumes were arrested Wednesday night after they destroyed the Blacktip Island Community Players’ audience participation version of ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.’ (photo courtesy of solarsurfer)
A group of island residents dressed as abominable snowmen ruined Blacktip Island’s Christmas play, a Rudolph Act-Along audience-participation production, Wednesday evening when they stormed the stage at the small Caribbean island’s Heritage House, attempting to join the performance en masse.
“We wanted to involve the entire community, so we sent flyers out telling folks to come as their favorite ‘Rudolph’ character and join in,” Blacktip Island Community Players director Doris Blenny said. “The problem was, everyone came dressed as the Abominable. They all charged the stage at once, each one claiming to be the real Abominable.
“Before we knew it, yelling became fisticuffs and a brawl ensued,” Blenny said. “There were Bumbles punching, kicking, biting each other. It spilled off the stage and into the crowd. They were beating each other with folding chairs at one point, and pulling out each other’s teeth. A couple of people dressed as elves arrived late, but the violence scared them away.”
Island authorities apprehended all eight brawlers.
“Riot at the Christmas play. That’s Blacktip, alright,” island police constable Rafe Marquette said. “I took away their costumes and locked ‘em all up. After Marissa at the clinic treated their wounds. Every one of them was drunk as a skunk. They’re all in the same holding cell now, in their underwear, singing ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ about as off-key as you can get.”
Participants defended their actions.
“They said to come as your favorite Rudolph character, and that’s what I did,” Gage Hoase said. “Then James Conlee got up on stage and said he was the Bumble. I was just holding my ground. The others were the aggressors. And Dermott Bottoms didn’t even have a costume—he just came as himself.”
Others disagreed.
“Gage got no right standin’ up there sayin’ he’s the only ‘Bominable,” Dermott Bottoms said. “Don’t even know the character. The ‘Bominable’s the real hero of that story, y’know. Gage was just gonna ruin things, turn the role into a cartoon. Couldn’t let that happen. Not in the spirit of Christmas.”
Blenny said the BICC would perform a hastily-rehearsed alternative holiday play on Christmas Eve.
“Thankfully, we have an astounding amount of acting talent on the island,” she said. “We were able to cobble together a script, and will be rehearsing daily until our revised performance date. We’re doing our rendition of Dostoyevsky’s ‘The Christmas Tree and the Wedding,’ with Jessie Catahoula as Julian Mastakovich, and Lee Helm as the little girl.”
The Blacktip Times 