By Ernest Kearney — In the crown of Los Angeles theatre, one of the brightest gems is the aNoiseWithin Company. Productions are stellar in their execution, gleaming with both intelligence and craft. The current production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, (adapted by Geoff Elliott, and co-directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Mr. Elliott) displays the company’s strengths in its vibrant and visually stunning staging.
The number of variations spun from Dickens’ 1843 “Ghost Story of Christmas” are head spinning. Within a year of its publication, there were nine stage productions in London alone. It has undergone more film and TV productions than any other work by Dickens and possibly more than any other work of fiction; with the exception of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
On stage Scrooge has been played by Orson Bean, Len Cariou, F. Murray Abraham, Patrick Stewart, Roddy McDowall, Jim Broadbent, Roger Daltrey, Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, Kathleen Turner and Gerald Charles Dickens, the author’s great-great-grandson.
Beginning with Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost in 1901, the three ghosts of Christmas tormented Scrooge in 14 additional adaptations until the 1951 Alastair Sim version, considered by most critics as the best. Then there was the engaging musical with Albert Finney, and Bill Murray’s Scrooged, television gave us Scrooges played by John Carradine, Cicely Tyson, Ralph Richardson, Fredric March, Rich Little (the famed impressionist invoked W.C. Fields as Scrooge,) James Earl Jones, Rowan Atkinson, Henry Winkler, The Muppet Christmas Carol with Michael Caine as the cold hearted penny pincher, and the animated Disney’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol with Jim Backus providing Ebenezer’s voice; there have been operas, ballets and even The Passion of Carol starring Mary Stuart as Carol Screwge in a pornographic reboot where the three ghosts do a lot more than just “visit.”
There’s not much more one can do with Christmas Carol. Elliott’s adaptation touches all the required bases and his performance as the reformed miser is effective in every way it needs to be. Trisha Miller is a standout as Christmas Past as is Riley Shanahan as Marley/Old Joe, and Kasey Mahaffy provides the perfect amount of heartache as Bob Cratchit.
It is the direction with its superb visual framing and flowing pacing which supplies the satisfying shimmer to the staging that finally sells this Christmas Carol.
Ironically, where this production disappoints is not attributable to any weakness in the conduct of the company, but in those philosophical elements from which the organization derives a good measure of vigor.
aNoiseWithin has from early on shown itself dedicated to the pursuit of inclusiveness in the make-up of the company and through the support of encouraging and training new talent. This is the first time these virtues have been problematic for me.
I found a number of the cast members to be inaudible, as did my lovely wife Marlene as well as another couple within our section. This might have been a minor annoyance if not for the prominence of one of those muffled voices. Still, the visual elegance of this production was not to be stifled and therefore receives no “Bah, Humbug,” from this reviewer.
(Photo of Anthony Adu in A Christmas Carol. Photo by Craig Schwartz.)
A Noise Within is located at:
3352 E. Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107
Click Here to see the show before December 23 or December 24: HERE
