ORLANDO — Orlando Shakes‘ annual holiday production, A Christmas Carol, feels similar to an office holiday party hosted at a 5 Star restaurant complete with open bar, a four course meal, and all your office friends having a rousing night together.
The Shakes production, which marked a triumphant return on Friday, is elaborate in the same way as an office holiday party; it has a large and engaging cast, some outstanding renditions of beloved Christmas songs, a cellist (Jean-Marie Glazer) providing a musical score to the proceedings, impressive visual effects, snow falling from above — a production so handsomely mounted that even Ebenezer Scrooge himself could barely utter a dismissive “Bah! Humbug!” if he’d been in the audience.
Shakes has been staging its irresistible version of the Charles Dickens novella for the past several years, and there’s no question why this crowd-pleaser is catnip for the Shakes’ crew and actors. What an perfect opportunity Scrooge’s saga provides for the theater to come alive in holiday cheer.
A Christmas Carol is being performed now through Wednesday, Dec. 24, and I can easily tick off the many reasons audiences are certain to come out of this show with a smile on their faces and a feeling of goodwill toward man. And no matter how familiar you are with Dickens’story, the characters come fully alive under the skills of a highly talented cast, so much so they feel like old friends you’re reuniting with over the holidays.
And if you’re not familiar with the story, boy are you in for a treat.
What is the play A Christmas Carol?
Miserly Scrooge’s tale of redemption begins on a bitterly cold night in London in the 1840s, when Scrooge turns down a dinner invitation from his cheery nephew Fred, chases off two women seeking donations for the poor, and grumbles loudly that his underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit expects a day off with pay on Christmas. Uniquely, despite how stingy, irritable and sour Scrooge is, his pompous manner has made him one of literature’s most fascinating creations. Anyone who knows the story’s ending full understands why.
As he arrives home that Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner Bob Marley, who gravely and almost frantically warns Scrooge to abandon his miserly ways and chart a new course — before it’s too late. Before the night is over, Marley warns, Scrooge will get visits from the Ghost of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. That journey enables Scrooge to silently visit Cratchit’s family, who live in poverty with a disabled son, Tiny Tim, who is weak and sickly. But despite that, Bob and his family find plenty of reasons for joy and togetherness on Christmas Eve.
I suspect one reason new generations continue relating to the story is something quite fundamental: Dickens asks all of us, imagine you were gone tomorrow — what would your legacy be? Scrooge confronts that dilemma most painfully during the visit by the gigantic Spector that is the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, who shows him two men on Christmas morning snidely mocking the death of the close-fisted, penny pinching old crab Scrooge, chuckling it up about what a cheap funeral he’ll have; or when two of his employees respond to his death by stealing his possessions and selling it to a local fence. Facing his own mortality, Scrooge is an object of mockery, shame and ridicule. His legacy is being the old cheapskate that no one could stand to be around.
That makes his final transformation both heartwarming and life-affirming. Ah, to get a second chance to turn everything around. No wonder we’re cheering for Scrooge to find redemption.
Not only that, but it’s scary at times, too! It’s been said that as a child, Dickens had a nursemaid who loved telling him creepy horror tales, giving the boy a passion for the paranormal and ghost stories that he carried with him as an adult. “Few know of the personal hauntings that Dickens himself experienced, or how the supernatural influenced his most memorable works,” notes writer Bryan Kozlowski for Historic.UK.com. ” ‘He had something of a hankering’ after ghosts, remembered his friend and biographer John Forster. And such was Dickens’ obsession with the supernatural …”
Both the novella A Christmas Carol and the Orlando Shakes production succeed in mixing the comical (Scrooge snipping at those charity collectors) and sentimental (his reawakening) with the genuinely frightening. Marley’s ghost is both pitiful and effectively scary as he warns off a ghastly afterlife, while the towering Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is one of the Shakes’ best artistic choices here, a silent figure that nevertheless speaks volumes as he delivers Scrooge to his own grave. This is a staged version of A Christmas Carol that kids and adults alike can become fully engulfed in.
How is the Orlando Shakes’ Production?
Greg Wood has the monumental task of carrying the entire show as Scrooge, and he delivers nicely, capturing the humor in Scrooge’s early scowling at anything that reeks of “Merry” and “Happy,” and he’s just as engaging waking up on Christmas morning to discover he’s still kicking — and so thrilled to be alive on Christmas day.
Mark Edward Smith is a larger-than-life, grim and sad Marley, both scary and pathetic, while E. Mani Cadet counters that with a jolly, rather playful and childlike Ghost of Christmas Present. Every cast member except for Wood juggles multiple roles, expertly; I particularly enjoyed Brent Jordan, who gave us a comical and instantly likable Bob Cratchit, yet still had the ability to swiftly transition into other minor characters with ease.
Orlando Shakes certainly got the formula right for an annual A Christmas Carol production, and it’s expertly done in every possible way, from the cast (and they are also glorious harmonious singers of those familiar Christmas carols) to the multiple sets they designed and the superb contributions of cellist Glazer. It truly is a holiday treat to enjoy year after year.
Where Can I See Orlando Shakes’ A Christmas Carol?
A Christmas Carol is being performed at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, 812 E. Rollins St. in Loch Haven Park, now through Wednesday, Dec. 24. The play is 2 hours long with a 15 minute intermission.
To purchase tickets, call the box office at (407) 447-1700.
Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright, and author of the book A Christmas Eve Story. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.
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