'Miracle on South Department Side road' spins a Buffalo Christmas yarn at Lancaster Opera Area

Or so maintains Clara (Tina Rausa), the barber’s daughter and owner of a soup kitchen she claims is constructed on Holy Flooring. Her overdue father’s miracle used to be the defining tale of her formative years, and part a century later, she nonetheless perspectives it as her existence’s project commentary. Much less may also be mentioned of Clara’s 3 grown kids – garbageman Jimmy (John Kaczorowski), ketchup bottler Beverly (Kate Mulberry), and would-be actress Ruthie (Lisa Noelle Miller) – who’ve been introduced as much as imagine, although can’t assist however really feel slightly just like the group wackos.

Dudzick facilities the plot of “Miracle” on revelation. Ruthie has summoned the circle of relatives on Christmas Eve to Clara’s kitchen – completely old-fashioned from set dressmaker David Dwyer – to speak about a revision to the Nowak’s mythologized historical past. Ruthie had a kind of “come to Jesus” second whilst looking at a one-man display at a neighborhood theater, and has made up our minds to jot down a play about what she insists is the real tale of the circle of relatives’s brush with divinity.

And so “Miracle” turns into a kind of shaggy canine story of twists and surprising turns. I gained’t smash any specifics right here, however Dudzick is interrogating the tales we inform ourselves about our origins, and what occurs within the moments the place long-held ideals are upended or shattered. Infrequently, you’ll be a step or two forward of his plotting – Dudzick has the tendency to arrange giant moments with just a bit an excessive amount of padding – however the playwright regularly ups the ante, or even manages to subvert the comedy right into a touching ultimate second that claims as a lot about our prejudices because it does our capability for super alternate. (I do assume the display lasts one scene too lengthy, however I perceive the emphasis on a tidy wrap-up for a Christmas play.)