[1][2] It dramatises a road trip by two parents and their three young children to visit grandparents for Christmas dinner, and the emotional turmoil that they undergo.
The cast featured Will McCormack (Stephen), Catherine Kellner (Rebecca), Enid Graham (Claire), Mark Blum (Father) and Randy Graff (Mother).
The play was presented at the Long Wharf Theatre (New Haven, Connecticut) in January and February 2004, directed by Oskar Eustis with the cast that featured Chelsea Altman, Angela Brazil, Timothy Crowe, Julio Monge, Anne Scurria and Stephen Thorne.
Therefore, like the world and New York City premieres, many productions are presented during what Vogel terms "the before and aftermath" of the holiday season (e.g., October, January).
Vogel bases the presence of puppets on what she claims is "one Westerner's misunderstanding of bunraku," the centuries-old form of Japanese puppetry.
The human actors speaking the children's lines during the opening automobile journey abandon the puppets in the latter portion of the play to fully embody the adult characters during lengthy monologues.
"[6] Many productions make great use of traditional Japanese music by shamisen players, though Vogel states that aural effects as varied as a boom box, Western Christmas carols "tuned to the tonal scales of bunraku," wooden clappers, or Hawaiian guitars are acceptable.
The New York Times, though bemoaning a "lag" in action as the adult children monologues appear in the latter portion of the play, nonetheless determined the work "is as pure as mathematics in its translation of the prosaic into the abstract.