Stage Right by Mark T. Niethammer

There are few better ways to ring in the Christmas season each year than watching an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The shocking transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge from bah-humbug curmudgeon to generous benefactor is a Christmas season classic, plus the beautiful characters of Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit makes visible the spirit of the season.

What could make that even better?  The Albert Lea Community Theatre’s production of “A Dickens’ Christmas Carol: a Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultuous Acts.” Written by Mark Landon Smith, this wonderful production is a non-traditional take on the beloved tale in which error and comedy take center stage.

The laughs begin before the production starts as the playbill reads “The Fifteenth Annual Farewell Tour of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic.”

According to Director Brian Mattson, “This play is a farce that is disguised as a parody.  Everything that can and will go wrong on stage does during this play.”

What you will experience then is a performance contained within a performance.  Rather than seeing the Albert Lea Community Theatre’s production, we have the opportunity to see the local ensemble perform the roles of the Styckes-Upon-Thump Repertory Company Inc, a troupe that includes too few actors playing too many parts and the hilarity that ensues.

Costume changes are fast and often incomplete, there is an understudy called to perform last minute who has her lines written on any prop possible from a muff to the Christmas pudding, and, of course, there must be a few prop malfunctions, missed cues, botched lines and feuding leading ladies for good measure.

The play, which is deliberately written to be imperfect, embodies the spirit of a season and a time in our communal lives when things are hardly perfect and never quite as bucolic as we may dream anyway. Pulling off such a performance is quite a challenge for any theater company, but this cast of characters pulls it off beautifully.

The show’s quick pace keeps the story moving and pushes the audience to look intently for the next flub of line, botched costume change, or stage malfunction all the while watching for cast members competing for stage time and the spotlight. Not even the changing sets were spared from the intentional error.

As the cast takes their final bow, it is hard not to marvel at how this cast of seven actors were able to so convincingly pull off nearly 40 different characters in performing one of the intentionally “worst” productions of this story.

The fact that this cast of characters is able to perform a play that is intended to be done in this manner speaks highly to the talent, comedic timing, the general quality of this ensemble and the vision of director Brian Mattson and his production staff.

This is certainly not a traditional performance of the holiday classic, but one that  is not only well worth an evening out with family and friends but also offers a generous helping of laughter and levity to ring in the joyous and festive time of year in our community.

This “Traveling Travesty” also marks the directing debut of Brian Mattson, whose eye for detail and quality becomes apparent immediately.

“A Dickens’ Christmas Carol: A Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultuous Acts” will be performed tonight, Saturday and Sunday and Dec. 10 to 13 at the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center on North Broadway in Albert Lea. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m.

For more information, please visit actonbroadway.com and like them on Facebook.

 

The Rev. Mark T. Niethammer is the pastor at Salem Lutheran Church in downtown Albert Lea and member of the Albert Lea Human Rights Commission.