Scrooge in action

Mary Ellen wanted to see Synetic's take on A Christmas Carol so we went last night. There was lots wrong with it:

• 5 of the people in the 8-person cast were teenagers and 1 other wasn't much older. For the first 15 minutes (which was very heavy on words and very light on action), the play felt very much like a high school production or declamation contest
• Frequently the music, as is usual of late, was way too loud.
• All of the actors tended to play the humorous lines far too broadly (mugging at the audience and so forth).
• Scrooge's conversion was unconvincing

Nevertheless, I thought that, overall, it was quite effective -- almost moving. Some of the things that did work well:

• Most of the words spoken were the actual words Dickens wrote. Tough to go wrong when you've got a playwright like that. Even some of the descriptive passages, such as the opening words of the story ("Marley was dead to begin with." etc.) were spoken -- by a kind of Greek chorus.
• The play was very tight, lasting only 75 minutes. Brevity may or may not be the essence of wit, but it certainly helps when retelling such a well-known story.
• Scrooge, on occasion (such as when he grabs a stick and goes after a caroler), really did seem like a mean SOB.
• The interplay between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit was handled nicely, and it was aided by a very imaginative (though simple) set design.
• But most important, the visits from the spirits of Christmas past, present, and future were lively and engrossing and the same teenage girls who annoyed me at the beginning were very fine Christmas spirits.

So, though I wasn't eager to go to the play, I have no regrets. I could have lived very well without seeing it, but I'm not unhappy that I did see it -- and I'm almost glad I did. This reaction probably reflects the fact that I've never gone through the whole story before in any form -- book, movie, or play -- so although the story was certainly familiar to me I was not as weary of it as many other people probably are.