New tech, old feeling, remarkable effect in TFTNC's "A Christmas Carol"

Hi everybody. I know it has been a while since I have posted anything here, much less a theater review, but I really wanted to share what I experienced at last night's performance of David Zen Mansley's adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" at Theatre for the New City.

I have been going to the Halloween party at Theatre for the New City for many years, and it has always given me a sort of post-apocalyptic feeling. The walls are black, the seats are low-cost, the tech is rudimentary, and everyone is dressed as if they are wearing whatever they could find and put together creatively. The performances are gloriously inspired and talented, but with that low-budget, can-do eccentricity and anti-professional sheen that says "this is not a glossy Broadway production that Aunt Edna and her husband bought tickets to because it was based on that favorite movie and stars that movie star who was in that movie she liked."

My theory of the post-apocalypse aesthetic is that the survivors will be wearing, decorating, and entertaining with whatever they can find, despite heir imperfections and appropriateness. However, this does put the subject of the presentation into a new, unfamiliar context that perhaps can bring out some tort of deeper meaning or new revelation from the source material. Last night's performance was no exception to that, and it worked marvelously!

There is a balance in any production between the text, the set, the props, the cast, and showmanship. (and musical numbers, if applicable). I have seen this story played out with Alistair Sim, Albert Finney, Henry Winkler, Patrick Stewart, Michael Caine with the Muppets, Mr. Magoo, and an an animated TV special (some of these several times), but never was that balance so finely attuned that every element of the story came through as clearly as it did in this version.

The set was minimal, but with a strong unified aesthetic. The one room served (depending on where on the stage the action played and which characters were present) as Scrooge's office, his bedroom,. the home of Bob Cratchit, and Joe's Beetling shop. There was a bed at stage right, a fireplace at stage left, a table downstage left, and a door in a corner upstage right. The back wall was a light tan color, fading into dark sepia at the edges.

It was against this back wall that Scrooge's visions appeared. They were projected video, but with the sepia tone, the old-timey look of the set and the low-tech production, I could not help but feel that I was watching an old silent film being projected. It felt not like the film was old, but that it was 1914 and I was watching a creative new use of the new medium of film to add a supernatural element to the production with this new special effect! The fact that the spirits and visions spoke did not take me out of that, I could have (if I cared) justified it by assuming it was an actor behind the screen or a Victrola being played simultaneously (I believe Thomas Edison invented a device that could do that).

All of the dreams and visions that Scrooge experienced were either shown on this screen or described in dialogue between Scrooge and the Spirits. It was through this that for the first time I learned about Scrooge's lonely childhood and how he was affected by the loss of his sister.

Another element of the production that played surprisingly well into the message of the story was the Cratchits' Christmas dinner. I don't know if it was due to budget, practicality, or a deliberate choice, but though the table was set with a full compliment of dishes, silverware, and drinking vessels, not a scrap of food could be seen. Bob Cratchit pantomimed serving the goose and the pudding, then taking the first bite of each. After each of those bites he praised the excellence and perfection of each dish to his wife, who blushed with effusive modesty. Whether or not it was a deliberate choice to have the plates bare and the cups empty, whether it was meant to be symbolic or deliberate, seeing the love and joy that the family could share without a scrap of food brought home the meaning of the season better than a hundred "Grinch that Stole Christmas" Broadway musicals.

It was also through the minimalism of the set, masterful editing of Dickens' text, and the spirited performance of the actors that never before did the good will of Scrooge's nephew and the mean-spirited opportunism of the vultures in the beetling shop come across so clearly and their import in the story be felt so well.

Mansley has produced this play annually for several years, and plans to continue doing so. I heartily encourage a visit to this play as part of a unique New York City experience of the season, and also to get a fresh perspective on the story and its meaning.

The original text:


Versions I have seen:









Versions I have not seen:




     

     

  



Inspired by the original...

Thoughts About the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Broadcast 2014

Some thoughts about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2014 and the commercials in the broadcast:

Savanna Guthrie (or her scriptwriter) does not know the difference between a “slash” and a “backslash.”

The baton/rifle/flag twirler who is just a little off the pace always draws your eye.

Christopher Walken as Captain Hook just shows how much casting decisions are made based on actor popularity. This is not to say that some of these actors don't do a great job (James Franco in “Tristan & Isolde” and Walter Matthau in Roman Polanski's “Pirates” are two examples), but really, Christopher Walken as Captain Hook?

American Authors were totally busted for missing their entrance in the lip-synch.

Has rock and roll gone so far away from the electric guitar that Gibson has to have a country band on their electric guitar float? And does this country band really have to be the most contemporary, countrypolitan, non-country band in the universe, that doesn't even feature an electric guitar in their song?

I love the Harlem Globetrotters,and I am glad they have a woman on their team again. Did you know there was a “Harlem Globetrotters” movie made in 1951 with Dorothy Dandridge? It was actually on TV this week, on MeTV, one of those new, digital-TV “extra” channels that plays movies all the time.

At first it sounded like Kiss was singing live, but maybe they just recorded themselves recently, because the camera caught a couple of them totally missing the lip-synch.

Queen sounds awesome done in big marching band style.

It was perfectly appropriate to have “Annie” on the Build-A-Bear float. I don't care if the actress who plays the lead is black, and even that her hair isn't orange, but if that was her, I was a little disappointed that she was the least-animated performer in the number. And I am sure Jamie Foxx will make a fine Daddy Warbucks (casting for popularity again?) but Daddy Warbucks should be bald.

The cool jazz version of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” by Renee Flemming was absolutely perfect on the “Central Park in wintertime” float. I don't even care if it was lip-synched.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a big, corny, cheese-fest, a uniquely American celebration of American show-business, commercialism, mainstream pop culture, and marching bands. It's one of those things that make NYC hat it is that is so damn popular and crowded no one can get to see it, except the thousands and thousands of people who do, jamming up the streets for miles along the route. The bet view of it, of course, is on television, and it is thus planned and choreographed to give the cameras the best view.

It is a completely useless exercise if overkill and waste that serves absolutely no purpose but to display the latest Broadway musicals, pop stars, youth-targeted movies and TV shows, toys, and tourist attractions, and no doubt draws tourists from all over the world who fill our hotels, flood our streets, and jam up our subways (they should have a subway turnstile in every hotel in NC so tourists can practice using their new Metrocards before they get in the subway) and make it impossible for real New Yorkers to enjoy all the wonderful things that NY has to offer that tourists know about.

Human beings are living on this planet on borrowed time. Fossil fuels are a limited resource, global woarming will challenge the habitability of the planet, and there will soon be too many people for the biosphere to handle. We could all live spartan lives, grow self-sustaining gardens for our solar-powered micro-homes for our three-person family units while doing Canadian Air Force exercises, and that would certainly sustain the life of the planet and the Human Race, but what would be the point of that? It's these cheesy, overblown spectacles that are part of national traditions that, much like the seasons, give us things to look forward to, and like any form of entertainment, give us a thrill and make us happy are alive and can see and hear.

Now if only we could focus that much of our energy and resources on ending war, posvery, injustice, and saving the planet...