Two Christmases set a decade apart, this play tracks the implosion of the Ashford family as three generations grapple with stricken bodies, cash crises & exhumed resentments.
2009. In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, patriarch Roy has suffered a minor stroke. This & the disintegration of the family farm leave the adult children raising the hard issue of relocating their parents. Helen tries to keep the day festive while Roy uses every tactic he knows to subjugate his children.
2019. The family struggles to hold it together. Shaun, the eldest son, is lost to suicide. Roy is now mute after another stroke but his legacy lives on, in his surviving son as bitterness, & his grandson through the extreme politics of an online generation.
Winner of the 2026 Adam New Zealand Play Award.