Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

By Tom Mula, Directed by Jon Ferguson
John Hassler Theater, November 29, 2007

(As Jacob Marley learns, time can move very fast or stand very still, especially around Christmas. I’ve been kindling my Christmas spirit by playing my own version of Bob Cratchit these past weeks. That’s my apology for the lateness of this review.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Tom Mula’s version of the Dickens’ holiday classic at the Jon Hassler Theater. The story is a great mix between what we know (the visits by Christmas spirits to the miserly Scrooge) and what we don’t know: the surprising twists and turns in the otherworld that lead to Scrooge’s annual change of heart. Mula takes the audience on this playful journey while staying true to a Dickens’ formal yet playfully satiric voice.

The Jon Hassler production utilizes four actors who move seamlessly between characters and onstage narration, a technique that works very well. In fact, rather than breaking up the story, the characters’ self-narration makes the audience co-conspirators in the unfolding events of this particular Christmas Eve. This works particularly well for the Bogle (a sprite played by Jane Schranz) who gleefully gossips with the audience over the hapless Marley (played by Charles Fraser) as she guides him through the confusing world of spirits. In a unique twist, this narration often asks the audience to imagine the special effects that a story of the supernatural demands: sometimes this narration is simply humorous; sometimes it’s amazingly effective at creating the illusion of spirits, costumes, crowds, and travel in the other world.

With simple lighting, some simulated wind, and sparse sound effects, the production effectively creates this otherworld. Ralph Ruan’s set utilizes the theater’s wide stage area to good effect, using cantilevered platforms to create the image of a world suspended by chains. The Jon Hassler’s wide performance space can cause problems for the designer (and a “tennis match” experience for the audience); here, as in Mercy of a Storm, Ryan’s design utilizes the space well. In a particularly nice turn of staging, the counting house where Scrooge and Marley spent their accounting days becomes the counting house where Marley must account for his actions as a mortal. Fraser’s Marley is humbled to sit on a stack of ledgers in the counting house&emdash;the same ledgers he piled on Bob Cratchit on Christmas eve.

With a sparse staging and only four actors, the success of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol depends on the actors. All four play several characters, including themselves as bumbling actors. For example, they unprofessionally peer at the audience from back stage before acts and even during scenes, and they seemingly can’t remember how scenes are blocked. And yet all four are able to conjure convincing versions of Dickens’s (and Mula’s)characters when the play requires it.

The end result is a production that re-tells Dickens’s classic with ample humor and playfulness as it moves the audience toward the expected catharsis with respect for both the story and the audience intact.

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol runs through December 23

Visit the John Hassler Theater for schedules and tickets: Jon Hassler Theater

Holiday Productions

I have to admit to being a bit of a Scrooge about holiday theater, particularly about A Christmas Carol. I’ve always felt that the first ghost is quite enough and that the following ghosts simply add to the suffering—of the audience. Much of that humbug feeling melted away while attending the Commonweal’s 2003 production. It’s likely that up until that appearance of Ghosts Past, Present, and Future, I’d simply never seen a production that handled Dickens with the humor, warmth, and inventiveness of a fine company like the Commonweal.

While no one is ever likely to say of me, “he knew how to keep Christmas well,” I have found myself enjoying A Christmas Carol and other holiday productions the past few Decembers. I realize that I’m the odd one; for many, a holiday-themed production may be the only theater they see all year. And that’s why theaters big and small produce holiday shows; it’s a dependable way to fill the seats and cover some of the year’s operating costs. And A Christmas Carol is the most dependable of the holiday plays.

This season, Southeast Minnesota Theater goers have the opportunity to see two A Christmas Carol “spin offs”: Inspecting Carol at the Commonweal and Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol at the Jon Hassler Theater. (Of course there’s sure to be many productions of the traditional version, including one at the Guthrie Theatre.)

Inspecting Carol

By Daniel Sullivan, Directed by Alan Bailey
Commonweal Theatre, Lansboro

In Daniel Sullivan’s Inspecting Carol, which is running at the Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro this season, a non-profit theater is staging the holiday classic in hopes of staving off financial ruin. Unfortunately—for the fictitious company—everything that can go wrong in a production goes wrong. The play good naturedly lampoons actors, directors, arts administrators, subscribers and even the National Endowment for the Arts. Sullivan, one of the most sought after directors in the country, created Inspecting Carol while serving as the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s resident director, and the play was developed along with the Rep’s actors, who are in a pretty good position to know what’s funny behind the scene.

Inspecting Carol runs through December 23.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

By Tom Mula, Directed by Jon Ferguson
Jon Hassler Theater, Plainview

Dickens opens A Christmas Carol with him: “Marley was dead: to begin with.” Tom Mula has taken the “to begin with” and spun a tale that he claims is the real story behind A Christmas Carol: “the story of Jacob Marley’s heroic behind-the-scenes efforts to save old Scrooge’s soul.” The result is a unique and humorous (irreverent, funny, and ultimately, deeply moving, says the publisher) take on the holiday classic.

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol runs through December 23

Visit the John Hassler Theater for schedules and tickets: Jon Hassler Theater

Proof is worth taking in

Winona State’s production of David Auburn's Proof is well worth taking in. I just returned from the opening night performance, and I was impressed by Auburn’s script and the WSU staging and acting. It’s a very engaging play, and it’s also the first play I’ve been to that has turned to the Philosophy department for program notes.

Proof also marks the final play at WSU for Director David Bratt who has taught in the Theater Department at Winona State for more than 30 years. Kari Knutson did a nice story about Bratt for the Winona Daily News today.

See below for more on WSU's production of Proof.

Proof

by David Auburn, directed by David Bratt
Winona State University Theatre and Dance Department

This Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play explores the elusiveness of genius, presenting the difficulty of a mathematical proof as a metaphor for the uncertainties of love, trust, and integrity.

Presented in the Dorothy B. Magnus Blackbox theater in the WSU Performing Arst Center. Tickets are limited, so advanced purchase is highly recommended.

Performances run November 28 - December 2, 2007 at 7:00pm
Winona State Performing Arts Center
$7.00 General Admission
Box office: 507-457-5235

WSU Theatre and Dance Page.

Yerma

by Federico Garcia Lorca
Directed by Judy Myers, M.F.A.

St. Mary’s Department of Theatere Arts presents Federico Garcia Lorca's Yerma November 9 - 12 at the St. Mary's Page Theatre.

See St. Mary's Campus Notes for more information.

Friday, Nov. 9, 2007 - 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007 - 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007 - 3 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 12, 2007 - 7:30 p.m.

Visit the Page Theatre website for schedule and ticket information.

Last chance to see a few great performances

Commonweal Theatre

Only one more week to see the Commonweal's Wait Until Dark. The Commonweal's summer thriller closes October 28.
Review: Wait Until Dark

Uncle Vanya plays through November 11.
Preview: Uncle Vanya
Review: Uncle Vanya

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre

Jon Hassler Theater

Tuesdays with Morrie closes Sunday October 21.
Preview: Tuesdays with Morrie

Visit the John Hassler Theater for schedules and tickets: Jon Hassler Theater

Uncle Vanya

By Anton Chekhov, directed by Lisa Weaver
Commonweal Theatre

It seems like it has been a long time since we’ve seen Commonweal’s Executive Director Hal Cropp on stage, and his portrayal of the desperate Vanya is another gem. Vanya has come to the realization that his life may have been totally wasted: he’s toiled for 25 years managing the home estate of his deceased sister, sending the proceeds to support his brother-in-law, the esteemed Professor. In fact the entire household—Vanya, Sonya, Vanya’s mother, the household staff—have lived their lives vicariously through the success of the professor. The discontent arises when the professor retires to the home estate bringing home his new young bride.

Vanya is shaken from his reverence for the professor by the reality of the professor in the day-to-day flesh. Perhaps it’s jealousy that precipitates the change: a contemporary of Vanya’s, the professor has taken nearly all the income produced by the estate to live a lavish, celebrity lifestyle, and now in retirement he has come home with a young beautiful wife (played by Amanda Davis). Vanya on the other hand has lived a frugal, dispassionate life, and with the appearance of Yeliena, his life and future seem very lonely and very celibate. Cropp is able to capture this anguish in his pronouncement that not only is the professor a whining nuisance, but his intellectual production is also void of any original thought. Cropp’s Vanya sums up his new understanding of the professor by declaring him a “lump.” (Which would work better if the professor wasn’t played by the lanky Stephen Houtz, but Houtz makes up for his stature by confirming Vanya’s assertions.)

“Lump” is a good reminder that Chekhov wrote this play as a comedy, and there is much to laugh at in this production: irony, twisted logic, childish idealism, outlandish behavior. But audiences have been reluctant to laugh because of the anguish underneath the humor. (At some points in the play, I may have been the only one laughing.) This production, while not seeming to play to the laugh lines, certainly provides ample opportunity for laughter.

The underlying pace of Uncle Vanya plods with dialog that often goes nowhere. Characters engage in irrelevant banter about tea, crops, household routines, hereditary sweat disorders—while underneath, characters are tumultuously re-evaluating their lives and finding their current paths meaningless. Each of the main characters will break out of the slow pace to make a desperate attempt to salvage some possibility of happiness. These acts seem too large, too clumsy, and uncharacteristically too passionate.

Jill Underwood as Sonya and Hal Cropp as Uncle Vanya. Photo: Commonweal

While this is the first production of Uncle Vanya I’ve seen, I expected these desperate acts to be executed clumsily, yet within the Russian reserve that runs through Checkov’s plays—I imagine this reserve as being similar to “Minnesota nice.” Yet the Commonweal’s characters scream with passion in a way that makes a Minnesota audience squirm. I left the theater thinking that the acting was too passionate for Chekhov: Jill Underwood’s Sonya, who runs the estate with staid efficiency and stability, becomes an insecure adolescent when she confesses her secret love for the doctor; mustachioed Erick Knutson abandons his medical demeanor and his life’s work of reforestation to make sexual advances to the professor’s young wife; Vanya weeps openly and often, loudly professes his anger and disillusionment to anyone who will listen, and makes his own advances on Yeliena.

While these passionate outbursts may seem out of character for Chekhov, director Lisa Weaver is presenting exactly what passionate expression might feel like to a person who has spent a lifetime avoiding passion. This exaggerated passion allows the audience to feel the internal terror a dispassionate person might experience over even the smallest expression of passion. Sometimes this internal experience moves into the surreal: Vanya’s attempt to shoot the professor seems comic rather then terrifying. Afterwards, Vanya wonders aloud if the shooting was even real: “It’s queer! Here I’ve tried to commit a murder, and yet no one arrests me, no one charges me with anything…It must mean they think I’m a madman.” (trans. Elisaveta Fen).

Come to see Uncle Vanya prepared to laugh, prepared to squirm at the un-Minnesota attempts at passion, and prepared to explore your own missed opportunities and deferred aspirations. Cropp, Underwood, Davis, and Knutson turn in powerful performances that add to the impressive body of work of the Commonweal.

Uncle Vanya plays through November 11.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre