#accgw

I ship christrev and will not be normal about them in the coming bullet points.

My god this was my favorite one yet, loved the little peek behind the curtain and actually seeing the cornley drama society gang interacting when they don't have an audience. I loved the idea of Chris having auditions every show even though it's clear that in 15 years, it's only ever been the seven of them (+ Trevor) who have participated. And I really loved the Chris/Trevor/Annie core three holding the auditions - like, yes, Chris is apparently okay with anyone else being an actor, but he absolutely needs Trevor and Annie by his side.

Henry Lewis is wonderful at Robert. I feel like it is terribly easy for Robert to be incredibly annoying, but Henry Lewis makes him effortlessly charming and egotistical and funny and antagonistic and ugh I do so love Robert, he's so good in this show.

Trevor is SO funny, I love that he got a chance to shine here. Did anyone notice that of the 9 bullet pointed items that the cornley gang discussed during their production meeting, basically all of them were Chris or Trevor's responsibility? Christrev being joined at the hip, working in the theatre with each other long into the night headcanon validated.

There's this recurring joke in the first act that killed me where the stage lights kept randomly falling into the middle of the stage, and every single time everyone jumped (because it was SO loud), and I loved watching Trevor's very neutral face during these moments as Trevor justified his lighting safety choices. "The weak ones fall, it's natural selection - only when the weak have fallen will the lighting rig be strong."

Chris Leask is SO good as Trevor. And let me take a moment here to say I LOVE stage Trevor. He's so silly and angry and incompetent and yet he tries so hard to salvage things. Don't get me wrong, I love TV show Trevor, but I feel like he definitely comes off as calmer and more earnest lol. Stage Trevor is simultaneously "I'm done with this shit, I'm getting blackout drunk before the show (Peter Pan pre-show)" and "Fuck fuck fuck, I need to fix everything right now" in such a beautiful, chaotic balance. Leask is brilliant at delivering all of Trevor's lines, personality and overall vibe. Every time he was on stage made me incredibly happy.

First time seeing Dan Fraser's Chris Bean, and he is SO good. I feel like Chris is deceptively hard to play, especially in this show, because he needs to be just unlikable enough to be a suitable Scrooge but not so unlikable that we don't feel the warm fuzzies when he changes for the better. Fraser's line delivery is so crisp; he gives perfect tightly-wound, constantly-one-more-bad-thing-away-from-a-mental-breakdown energy. I'm going to talk about this more later, but towards the end of the show, when he apologizes to everyone - he says "I am so sorry" and his voice breaks and in my heart I went "noooo chris" - was SO good. Incredible pathos that I did not expect from Chris Bean.

Watching other Chris Beans has made me realize what is so unique about Henry Shields's Chris Bean. Shields gives such perfect wet cat energy when he plays Chris. It is so hard to put into words, but I feel like if you see it, you'll immediately know what I mean. He's a little ridiculous, almost farcical in some of his mannerisms. He takes himself SO seriously, and he is genuinely baffled when the audience does not respond the way he expects, and his little cartoon anger gauge fills up until he both explodes and implodes at the audience. It is so fun to watch. He is infinitely bully-able in my opinion hahaha. Fraser's Chris (which he plays VERY well, don't get me wrong) gave me a sense he has more awareness. There's the titular goes wrong theatre scene where Chris interacts with the audience, and it was brilliant, but you get the sense that his Chris knows the audience is fucking with him and cannot be reasoned with (while Shields's Chris to me feels like he genuinely believes he can teach the audience how to react appropriately to theatre and is infuriated/baffled that his lessons are not getting through lol).

We learn that Chris Bean had a 100% possessed doll growing up. It's a very funny scene - the Cornley gang immediately (and quite understandably) freaks the fuck out about this doll that Chris wants to play Tiny Tim. Sandra quite memorably says "We're supposed to want Tiny Tim to LIVE" and Chris gasps in response and covers up the doll's ears, which was very cute. Also when he says he's had Mr. Garibaldi (?) since he was a little boy, Trevor mutters "That makes so much sense" lol. But also, what the hell is going on with Chris and his weird ass childhood. He has a, once again, DEFINITELY haunted doll (he tells Trevor at one point "You can try to throw him away but when you wake up, he'll be back in your bed :D" which by the way is like the only time Chris is happy in this show before the end lol). And in that Mother's Day video, he tells us all that his mother, like all mothers, only has one meal a day: a single cracker at midnight. There is something weird as hell going on in the Bean household.

Trevor can't drive and has hit at least two (2) people and one (1) theatre building with his big yellow transit van. Idk if this was only a headcanon before but Trevor can't drive confirmed. There's also a moment in the play where Dennis accidentally reads a court summons for Trevor regarding his driving violations lol.

The way Trevor fully smashes through the theatre wall, parks and locks his van, comes all the way around into the building, looks back at his OWN van and asks, entirely seriously "What happened with the wall?"

Him calling Chris "Chrissy" ahhhh it was so cute. It also happened when he was calling out Chris for being a complete prick, and I love so much that he was the one to do it. They also got very close during this scene but heyoo

Not to justify Chris being a prick, but holy shit the scene where everyone in the society is calling his name and asking him questions and freaking out about various things and not understanding how acting works made me feel stressed for him lol no wonder he's wound up so tight. Definitely understand why no one else wants to be director (except for Robert) at the end.

There's a quick change when they go from their world to them presenting the play to us the audience. I am PRETTY sure that the way it happens is that Trevor (who is closest to Chris because they were arguing) grabs the back of Chris's sweater and pulls it off to reveal his fun festive Christmas shirt (which funnily enough happens after Chris yells "I HATE CHRISTMAS"). Someone please write Trevor clumsily helping Chris with quick changes backstage (and it goes horribly wrong of course).

The actual Christmas Carol play finally happens. Earlier, there's a scene where Chris shows everyone the model box for the set (which I guess he built? Then sent to some builders to make the actual set. Idk why I always assumed Trevor one-manned all their production sets lol I don't know how theatre works). He tells everyone not to touch it. Everyone immediately touches it the second he leaves to get Mr. Garibaldi the haunted doll and breaks stuff. Then a stage light falls from the sky and breaks more stuff. They replace part of the model box with a malteasers box and an off-brand Barbie playset which then of course gets built into the actual set. We all see the giant malteasers box get wheeled in and also Trevor coming up from behind it yelling that this is not his fault before he gets shoved backstage by Robert. Trevor doesn't get a mic when we enter the actual play which makes sense, so it wasn't until I saw it the second time in the orchestra that I could hear some of what he was saying off-mic lol.

I know in the peter pan stage show it was a joke that they had a much bigger production budget so the set was so cool, but my GOD the set, the lighting, the costumes were SO good here. The ghost of christmas yet to come looked incredible, my jaw dropped. Where did the actual cornley drama society get the budget for this lol.

Robert trying to completely incapacitate Chris - brilliant

Robert as the ghost of christmas present while stuck in a present box - brilliant

Sandra exerting her power as the narrator to force Chris to touch Robert's thigh (because Robert's hand was trapped in said present box) - love my girl

Mr. Garibaldi the haunted doll gets shoved into the model box by Trevor, so of course the builders have built him as tall as the stage and terrifying, and his voice thunders and echoes and his eyes glint with 100% sentient malevolence. At one point, Tiny Tim the giant haunted doll booms "Let's raise a glass to Mr. Scrooge" and Mrs. Cratchit is supposed to refuse, but Dennis as Bob Cratchit, practically crying, yells "Just do as he says!" and they get on their knees to appease the giant doll lol.

At one point, Trevor has a little speaking part in the play, and before he says his line, he hesitates and looks back at Chris, and Chris gives a little "go ahead" head incline, and Trevor turns around and says his line, and because I was watching so carefully the second time around, I noticed Chris does a little nod of approval afterward. It was really cute ahh I choose to believe Chris and Trevor rehearsed his line multiple times together.

I watched Chris's face when the guests at Fezziwig's party started doing the macarena (because they didn't have enough time to decide on better choreo), and he fully closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the sky like he was praying for deliverance lol. Chris has some great facial expressions on the side whenever something ridiculous happens.

Trevor plays the ghost of christmas yet to come, and I just want to point out that earlier in the play, he asks Chris if he can play the (completely silent) character Scottish, and while Chris is baffled, he agrees to it. I will read christrev into this you can't stop me.

as we all know, trevor brings chris to the gay bar

To be clear, his giant christmas-yet-to-come head slams into the graveyard gates and makes "Graveyard St. Barnaby's" read "gay bar"

Chris: "Tell me, am I the wretched soul who lies cold and dead in the... gay bar?"

Listen, this entire Christmas Carol story is an analogy for Chris, which means that it is entirely within the realm of narrative congruence for this to be as well.

Chris doesn't crash out as hard at the audience this time, but it is entirely made up by the fact that he crashes out SO hard within the play when he finds out that the rest of the Cornley drama society were holding secret meetings and planning on launching a coup to oust him as director. It happens at the moment when Scrooge is changing for the better and granting Bob Cratchit the entire week off, and Dennis accidentally reads out the minutes to said secret meetings. Listen, I love Peter Pan's Chris crash out more than anything in the world, but this might be a topper. My man Bean freaks out so hard he decides that HEY FUCK YOU Scrooge does NOT have a change of heart. In fact, he will take this giant goose and he will bring it to Fred's house, and he will EAT IT BY HIMSELF while everyone watches - and yeah fuck you Robert, he doesn't care that the goose is made entirely out of styrofoam. And while he's at it, bring out Tiny Tim, he'll eat the styrofoam goose in front of him too. So out comes Giant Tiny Tim, and out comes off-brand giant Barbie playset (which plays disco music), and Trevor's come on stage, and everyone's yelling, and Trevor's saying that there's a button in Giant Tiny Tim's mouth that turns off the disco music, so Chris climbs up onto the set to reach Giant Tiny Tim's mouth and gets swallowed whole. Scene ends.

I thought it was very cute that even though Chris was at peak crash out, when it looked like he was getting eaten, the rest of the society still jumped up trying to grab his legs to save him.

Trevor comes out at the end of the Christmas Carol play to read us a legal statement lol

Then we go back into the Cornley gang universe. Everyone except Chris is there waiting for the Cornley newspaper review of their show - Oh right, I forgot to mention the reason Chris reneged on the decision to cast Robert as Scrooge was because they were getting a "top reviewer" from the newspaper, and Chris was absolutely fixated on making sure the show was a success to get a good review. Also, Chris initially made Robert as Scrooge to prove he was not a control freak, when he said "Haha, see? I'm not the control freak you try to paint me as" in the tightest, smiley-est control freak voice possible, I love that little man.

Cornley gang is divided between feeling really bad Chris learned about the coup in the worst way possible and still being mad about how much of a dick he was being. Trevor especially was still mad. They try to pick another director, and no one wants Chris's job (except Robert, but they soundly reject Robert as director lol - and Summer Once Again presumably didn't even happen here).

Chris comes in. His hair is all wet and messed up. Of note, his hair was very neatly slicked back in the beginning scene, and he was dressed prim and proper, straight posture, lots of eye contact, very authoritative - the DYE-rec-torrr lol. Now he's got his messy hair and wearing a Christmas sweater, talking softly, he enters the scene looking at the floor, and it's such a huge body language change. As it turns out after crawling out of Tiny Tim, he fell into the canal on accident (?) but fortunately, because of how much styrofoam was in his body, he just "sort of floated" and was fished out by the local Cornley council who seemingly just sent him home and not, maybe more sensibly, to the hospital lol. I'm assuming this scene happens the next day after opening night, and even if you assume it's morning, Chris's hair is still wet, so at the very least, he was in that canal all night.

Chris tells them that he realized (while bobbing in the canal) that he owes them all an apology. At which point Trevor approaches Chris from behind looking VERY concerned and touches him on the shoulder asking "Are you feeling alright, Chris?" Chris says he feels great aha, he's in fact realized that he needs to be a better man, better friend, and "if you'll have me, a better director." Then he pauses, looks at the ground, and he says "I'm so very sorry" - and this is the line where his voice breaks, and he genuinely sounds like he's about to cry, and the first time I didn't notice because I was too busy feeling feelings about Chris Bean. But the second time, I noticed that after Chris says this line, Trevor (who is still at Chris's side holding onto his shoulder by the way), says VERY softly "Oh Chris" and reaches out with his other hand to grab Chris's wrist as well. It's a brief hold but he assuredly does it and oh my gosh it was so soft, my heart melted.

The Cornley gang also apologizes for Chris finding out about the secret meetings and the coup, and Robert says that they should have just talked to Chris. They unaminously vote Chris back in as their director, and everyone cheers and starts chanting "Cornley. Cornley. Cornley!" while jumping up and down and surrounding Chris in a big circle, and it's so very cute, I love them all.

Also Chris has changed his mind on afterparties (previously, he refused to throw one because he said a la scrooge that it cost too much money), and he booked them a room in the Dead Duck pub, and he bought the biggest tiny grocery cake he could find at the corner store, which Trevor and Annie looked excited about, which was cute.

Then the review comes out, and as it turns out, it is completely neutral. Everyone is so happy, and here is the infamous christrev scene. They didn't kiss either time I saw it, but they absolutely DO do an extremely adorable face grab. They both hold onto each others faces with both hands, and the second time I saw it, they lingered a little bit longer than the first time which ahhh. Then when they break apart, Trevor does what I think is a fist pump in the corner, and Chris leaps into Robert's arms for a hug which is also really cute (grovebean, I see you too).

Overall, I absolutely LOVED seeing this show. It made me laugh so much, and I felt so much joy. Love the Cornley gang so much.

And my personal headcanon is that they had to change the ages to match that of the actors now, but I think it makes the most sense that this takes place soon after Peter Pan stage show (which is referenced multiple times, mainly by poor traumatized Jonathan). I like to believe that they did Peter Pan as their last show in polytechnic, and that Christmas Carol is their first legit show since they all graduated, which explains to me why they were holding auditions (Chris still holding out hope that he might get any other talent at all) and why a good review meant so much. I headcanon after this show, they officially become the Cornley Drama Society and maybe they hijack the BBC Christmas Carol (where Chris fulfills his promise and lets Robert be Scrooge for real, but things go wrong anyways lol), and that gets them Play of the Week.

I'll finish with this. In the program for this show, Trevor says that he has been working for Cornley Drama Society for over ten years, and in the next sentence, it says he despises theatre. Why does Trevor still work for Cornley? Because his criminal driving record can't get him hired anywhere else. BECAUSE OF CHRIS

The End.

A note I made before heading out to see the play: There's always the chance I'll get an understudy, of course, but, if he's present, I'm not sure how I'll cope with being in the same room as Robert's actor Henry Lewis, who is so hot it makes me genuinely nervous.

He was, in fact, there! As tall and loud and handsome as I could desire; I had a good view of him from my place at the side of the stalls. Although I do have a bone to pick with whoever decided to trap Robert in an enormous present box for most of the second act (quite possibly Lewis himself), which was very funny but did unfortunately obscure his excellent face.

Come to think of it, the 'if he's present' in my initial note accidentally ended up being an incredible pun.

Everyone did a great job, but I have to give special mention to Daniel Fraser, who was absolutely perfect in the role of Chris. It's not easy to play a character when your entire audience is used to seeing another actor in that role! But I thought Fraser was magnificent.

Annie is extremely enthusiastic and seems to adore everyone in the society. During auditions for the Christmas Carol production, she hugs everyone who comes in (Robert, Dennis, Jonathan, Max - I assume Sandra as well, although we start midway through hers) and says that every audition performance is brilliant. Important characterisation information! I'm particularly glad that she and Robert seem to get along; it can be hard to gauge how Robert and the other members of the society feel about each other.

Apparently Annie and Max recently completed a six-year acting course under Robert. Every indication that the drama society's members also spend time together in other contexts is very important to me.

At one point, while Chris was being aggressive to everyone, Annie backed away from him, putting her back against Robert's chest, and Robert put his hands on her shoulders. Cute??

Jonathan is traumatised by his fall during Peter Pan and terrified of heights. He was nervous about returning to the stage but reminded himself of the Cornley Drama Society's motto: 'The show must go on, regardless of the human cost'. 'You can actually act,' Chris tells him; I'm glad I was correct to assume when writing my fic that Chris had a good opinion of Jonathan's acting ability!

According to Trevor, the lights periodically falling from the rigging onto the stage is all part of the process. 'The weak ones fall; it's natural selection.'

Robert proposed performing nude to save money on costuming so they could afford a post-show party. I thought at first that he really wanted a party, but it turns out he's also really into the idea of doing a nude play. Later, when he makes a bid to take over as director: 'Our next production will be Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. But nude!'

Robert objected strongly to the fact that his main role was the Ghost of Christmas Present, who didn't come on until the second act: 'The audience are usually long gone by then.'

Robert apparently broke into the local church and stole the vicar's desk for the set.

Robert's only scripted line in the character of the clerk was 'Yes.' He delivered it in as drawn-out and dramatic a way as possible, and found several more ways to include it beyond the confines of the script.

I enjoyed watching Robert desperately try to cram himself into a giant box of Maltesers. I will not be giving further context at this time.

At one point Robert attempted to play Scrooge and instead played John McClane ('I'm Ebenezer Scrooge. There are terrorists in the building! Yippee-ki-yay, motherf—'), in an extremely confusing blorbo collision for me; Robert, Scrooge and McClane are all characters I'm very fond of!

On account of a failure to plan choreography in advance, everyone ended up doing a slow Macarena to violin music in one scene. 'Do the Macarena' is very much my personal strategy when I'm forced to dance and don't know what to do; I'm glad to see that the Cornley Drama Society take the same approach!

At one point Max attempted, unsuccessfully, to goad Jonathan into a kiss.

One of Robert's various efforts to steal the role of Scrooge, it's important to note, involved tying Chris up and taping his mouth shut.

The curtain that fell at the interval was an enormous replica of Robert Grove's CV (page 1 of 148). He lists 'Dog Ownership' as one of his skills, and his roles include 'audience member' for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the role of Robert Grove in 'Anecdote', directed by Robert Grove (venue: restaurant), every character in The Wind in the Willows (venue: 'shouted in street'), and Dracula in Immersive Dracula (venue: 'Audience Member's House (forced entry)'). In a production of Romeo and Juliet, he played both Romeo and Juliet. I'll be honest: I would watch the hell out of that.

He's perfect. If I were directing a play, I would cast him in every role, and I think he'd agree that this would be the correct decision.

Robert was in a giant Christmas present for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and he was unable to fully emerge from it; only his legs were visible. He invited Chris (as Scrooge) to take his hand, then, realising that wouldn't be possible, amended the instruction to 'touch my thigh'.

Chris: I'm not going to touch your thigh. Sandra, narrating: Scrooge did as he was told. Chris: (very unhappily puts his hand on Robert's thigh)

Trevor, attempting to puncture an air hole in Robert's Christmas present prison, apparently stabbed Robert 'right in the tit'.

New Robert lore: he has a son called Fleance, who spends most of his time with his stepdad. Unusually, Fleance was coming to the play this time, so Robert really wanted to play Scrooge, a role he was tragically denied. After the play:

Sandra: Did Fleance enjoy it? Robert: He left in the interval, so… maybe.

I am, incidentally, delighted that Robert chose a Macbeth reference for his child's name. I mean, Fleance's mother (presumably Denise?) could theoretically have chosen the name, but, let's be honest, the kid's called Fleance; we all know Robert was responsible for that.

Another important Robert lore detail: his balls are canonically sodden with sweat while he's trapped in the giant Christmas present. Actually, maybe it's not that important. Maybe we should all forget I said that, in fact.

After the curtain fell on the in-play production of A Christmas Carol, Trevor came out to address the audience.

Trevor: We've decided that, rather than the cast coming out to take a bow— Audience: Aw. Trevor: Don't interrupt me. Rather than the cast coming out to take a bow— Audience, louder: Awwww. Trevor: Sod off. Sod absolutely off.

He tried a couple more times to restart the line, but the audience just kept 'awww'ing. Eventually he broke and started laughing, then managed to get the audience to stay quiet by going 'listen up, this is important!' and jumping straight into the second half of the line ('I'm going to read this legal statement').

(At the end of the actual play, Jonathan Sayer thanked everyone present for being such a 'wonderful and raucous audience'. Or was it 'boisterous'? It was, in any case, delivered in a good-humoured 'wow, you guys' tone.

To be clear, the audience generally behaved themselves! They did get a little overexcited when addressed directly, in a way that made me worry they might feel empowered to heckle later on, but my concern was unfounded; everyone showed solid judgement on when it was and wasn't appropriate to make remarks.)

An out-of-context line from Robert: 'When I last saw [Chris], he was crawling out of Tiny Tim's massive arsehole. Then he ran off towards the canal, shouting, "I'm better than this."'

When they got a neutral review and everyone celebrated, Chris threw himself into Robert's arms and Robert spun him around in a hug, and it was pretty cute.