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The Rice Thresher
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Tim Crippen thresher editorial staff This is the twelfth year that the Alley Theatre has produced the holiday parable A Christmas Carol. In this perennial replay of the production lies its best facet: tradition. If the Alley had adhered to traditional elements of the show, they could have produced a production that would be pleasing to their whole audience. When they depart from tradition and add artistic flourishes, they lose some of the fun and simplicity that are essential to this show. The story is about Ebenezer Scrooge, the greedy miser, and his change in opinion of Christmas from "Bah, humbug!" to "Merry Christmas." On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the spirit of his dead partner, Jacob Marley, who tells him he will be visited by three more spirits. The Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future show Scrooge around London, where he sees scenes that well up sentimentality in the old man's heart and turn him into a gleeful philanthropist by Christmas Day. James Belcher plays an appropriately crotchety old Scrooge, but the energy he's had in other Alley performances don't really come through until the very end. His tone as Scrooge is muddled; it's hard to tell if he's playing a comic or tragic miser. However, after Scrooge's revelation on Christmas morning, Belcher's energy does come through, and the audience responds heartily. I wonder if the annual repetition of this performance hasn't sucked some of the interest out of it for Alley regulars like Belcher. The spirits are all played well. Past is portrayed by a solemn Elizabeth Heflin whose costume looks like a wedding dress lined with Christmas lights. David Rainey plays Present. His costume and appearance are all jovial enough for the spirit that takes Scrooge through the reverent home of the Cratchits and the happy celebration of Scrooge's nephew Fred. However, Rainey's delivery is a little too serious and is marred by the phaser effect that is used on his voice to give it an echoing, ethereal sound. In the review performance, Bob Cratchit, usually played by John Tyson, was played by understudy Christopher Patton, who did an excellent job. Tyson is one of my favorite Alley regulars, but I challenge him to perform better than Patton. Cratchit is a rather pitiful character with a peasant nobility. His performance could easily be made sappy and sentimental, but Patton avoids both. Lauren McKenzie Patrick, the seven-year-old girl who plays Tiny Tim, also produces an outstanding performance, which is quietly pitiful but not precocious or overbearing. I think the first big failure of the Alley performance is that it's not funny enough. While there are some good laughs, especially toward the end, the play should be better tempered by consistent laughs to keep younger (and older) viewers interested in an otherwise predictable play. The second problem with the Alley's A Christmas Carol is that its attempts at artistic flourishes take away from the traditional aspects of the play and contribute to an overly serious attitude. For example, the townspeople that Scrooge sees milling about the street are sometimes in choreographed dance that's unnatural and doesn't allow the actors any freedom to make interesting movements to back the dialogue or other action on stage. The costumes and the sets are all fairly traditional, which makes these choreographed movements seem all the more out of place. In this traditional air lies the value behind the Alley's annual performances. Parents can take their kids and expect them to have a good time, but I think the Alley would be better served by creating a more traditional show overall. Older members of the audience could pretend they're kids hearing the story for the first time, and younger audience members can, 10 years from now, look back to the Alley as the origin of their memories.
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