In Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, director Rick Dildine delivers his intentionally family-friendly, humorous, music-filled, ensemble production to inaugurate the Holiday Season in the River Region.
It is a delight to the eyes and ears of audiences through evocative sets and masterful projections by Edward T. Morris, enhanced by Jeff Behm's sophisticated lighting, and Kathleen Geldard's lovely period costumes. -- An on-stage instrumental quintet invites audience participation as they play and sing numerous countryfied holiday tunes as arranged by Michael Costagliola, who also provides a powerful sound design that punctuates the action.
With countless versions and adaptations created for stage, film, and television, A Christmas Carol has long been a staple for audiences around the world, so there are bound to be expectations and comparisons from audiences each time a new one appears.
But the essentials may not be tampered with. -- It's a cold Christmas Eve, seven years to the day of the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's [Paul Slade Smith] business partner Jacob Marley; Scrooge's underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit [Benjamin Bonenfant] suffers the ire of his employer; his nephew Fred [Alex Ross] won't be deterred from his happy seasonal demeanor regardless of Scrooge's "Bah, humbug!" dismissal of anything that even hints at being pleasant; Scrooge's refusal to contribute to a fund for the poor depicts his miserly disposition. -- And Scrooge changes overnight from a "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner" to a benevolent man who "keeps Christmas in his heart throughout the year" through the intercession of the ghost of Jacob Marley [Garfield Hammonds] and visitations of the Spirits of Christmas Past [Adrian Denise Kiser], Present [Chauncy Thomas], and Yet-to-Come [uncredited], who take Scrooge on a journey that exposes him to an assortment of encounters from his past-present-and-future that cause him to re-evaluate his life choices and become a better man.
Mr. Dildine's adaptation runs a little more than 90-[hurried]-minutes, including intermission, and while it retains the essential moments, some of the scenes are mere snippets that could benefit from allowing them more time to develop both major and minor characters and their impact on Scrooge's character change...and for audiences to engage more fully and invest in Scrooge's "reclamation".
The above notwithstanding, the production emphasizes the story's positive messages, infuses music frequently, stresses the ensemble nature of the acting company, and regularly finds humor to contrast serious themes.
There are two "Young Company" casts comprised of local young people, so whichever performance you attend, you'll see a different group playing the Cratchit family, various urchins, and, of course the crippled Tiny Tim Cratchit [an endearing Carson Campbell on opening night], whose "God bless us, everyone!" sends us off in the best of spirits for the holidays.
