Good move

The Gypsy Revels travels well

by Jeffrey Gantz

THE CHRISTMAS REVELS, Directed by Patrick Swanson. With Jay O'Callahan, the New England Romanian Ensemble, Neena Gulati and Triveni Dance, the Romany Children, the Calusarii, the Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble, El Arte Flamenco, the Revels Chorus, and the Pinewoods Morris Men. At Sanders Theatre, Thursday through Sunday (no performance Christmas Day) through December 28.

The 27th annual edition of The Christmas Revels is an especially moving affair. John Langstaff's fabulously successful "Celebration of the Winter Solstice: Traditional & Ritual Dances, Carols, Processionals & Drama" has spread to cities across the country, from St. Paul to Houston and from California to the New York harbor; it's also spun off a Spring Revels, a Midsummer Revels, a Sea Revels, a Harvest Revels. And the original Cambridge edition, housed in Harvard's cozy Sanders Theatre since its inception, has celebrated the solstice traditions of countries from the British Isles to America and throughout Europe.

But this year's production is literally moving -- it goes on the road with the Romany Gypsies, following them as they spread out from India into Eastern Europe and as far west as Spain and Ireland, and turning us all into Traveling People (as indeed God made us). The Sanders stage is festooned with a hanging Shiva and wagon (kharma?) wheel, plus images of Krishna and Radha and the Gypsies' beloved Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of beginnings. At one end a Gypsy wagon is parked, round which the New England Romanian Ensemble holds forth; at the other end is gathered the Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble. And between them tumbles out an astonishing array: classical Indian dance, flamenco (Isabel Ríos more contained and erotic than her Riverdance counterpart), rituals to honor St. George and St. Basil and Black Sarah, re-enactments of the Calus (a Morris-like ritual from Romania) and the Plugusor (a Romanian prosperity ritual). And, of course, the Gypsy Bear, whose special massage has restorative properties.

Holding all this together is the ever-excellent storyteller Jay O'Callahan, who by now is almost as much of a Boston institution as the Revels. As Old Rom, he goes back, well, at least to the time of Christ, so he's able to tell us how the Gypsies began, how Gypsies were present at the Nativity (it seems that the Magi, travelers themselves, brought gifts of chocolate, chocolate, and . . . chocolate), how Ganesh became Shiva's favorite son, and "How the Gypsy Went to Heaven." His roguish wit is matched by the kinetic, klezmer-flavored playing of the New England Romanian Ensemble, which sets the tone for the evening -- as Old Rom explains, God gave the Gypsies His fiddle because He loved their passionate joy (and He must have thrown in His clarinet, which here sounds irresistibly loopy). No praise could be too high for this group.

Counterpointing the NERE's contagious craziness is the majestic Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble (particularly gorgeous in its "ën Seara de Sfînt Vasile" tribute to St. Basil). The way the fleet-footed, high-spirited dancing embraces adults and children is an advertisement for real family values (not the phony kind conservatives are apt to preach); the Gypsy Bear is even cuter than Boston Ballet's Nutcracker beast. Three hours flash by (I would happily have sat through an encore of the entire performance), keeping the darkness at bay as few things in this world can. Latcho drom ("Good traveling") indeed!