A Tuna You'll Like And Your Parents Would Love

Seeing A Tuna Christmas is like going home for the holidays. Not because my family clan is anything like the wacky clan of characters who make up Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas. But because the sense of humor, silly and pun-tastic, is exactly like my Dad's. And while I can't say it isn't amusing, it's kind of nice that I only really have to deal with it for extended periods of time when the holidays come around.

The Tuna shows have been a D.C. holiday institution for years, and it's something that's readily obvious in the theater. The (less than young) crowd laughs uproariously at the jokes before they even occur, applauds eagerly when their favorite characters come onstage. It's kind of a surreal experience -- and an endearing one, too.

Tuna, which has a brief run at the Warner a little more ahead of Christmas than seems necessary, is the brainchild of Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard. Williams and Sears play all the characters themselves, whether it be the beleaguered housewife Bertha Bumiller or the snobby small-town theater director Joe Bob Lipsey, and it's sometimes uncanny how easily the actors, particularly Sears, slip into the roles (though drag is clearly a running gag here, the women characters here are funny as individuals, not just because men are playing them). The plot centers around an annual Christmas decorating contest, but is really just about the foibles of the families of this tiny town.