Saratoga News Photograph by Dennis Rosenberg Director Brian Ruf of Saratoga, bottom, joins some of the cast in 'The Eight: Reindeer Monologues,' playing through Dec. 18 at City Lights Theater Company. Reindeer sue Santa Claus By Shari Kaplan A shocking flap has ensued at the North Pole and is centered around some disenchanted members of Santa Claus' busy workshop. City Lights Theater Company of San Jose is on top of the incident with its production of The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, a holiday play by Jeff Goode that runs through Dec. 18 and is directed by Saratoga native Brian Ruf. "It's an irreverent look at the holidays," Ruf says with a grin. "It kind of deals with sexual harassment in the workplace. There's a big scandal going on at the North Pole!" The scandal involves charges of inappropriate conduct brought against the Jolly Old Elf himself by his eight reindeer. The deer, Ruf says, have decided that Santa's sexual peccadilloes and abuse of power have gone on long enough. According to the play's humorous yet thought-provoking script, it was sexy Vixen who first exposed her employer's foibles. Ruf says the play also reveals some bawdy truths behind "the whole foggy Christmas affair" commonly lauded as the ballad of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. A 1981 Saratoga High School graduate, Ruf says he was bitten by the theater bug when he appeared in Anything Goes while at Redwood Middle School. After receiving a bachelor's degree in theater from UCLA, Ruf lived in New York for a time and spent a year on the road as The Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story. He returned to Southern California in 1993 to pursue a career in film and TV. In 1994, he became familiar with The Eight: Reindeer Monologues when he portrayed Prancer in its L.A. premiere. Ruf came back to Saratoga in 1995 to help his father in business, and became active in Bay Area theater, particularly the Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos. Although he has performed with City Lights in the past, this is his directorial debut. "The biggest challenge as a director is that the play is eight individual monologues. We had to find a flow to make it cohesive. It has to be pieced together so it doesn't seem like eight separate vignettes," explains Ruf, who adds the audience is sure to be surprised and amused by this holiday spoof. Admission to The Eight: Reindeer Monologues is $8, or $4 with a ticket stub from City Lights' concurrent And To All a Good Night. The theater is at 529 S. Second St. For showtimes, call 295-4200. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 9, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.