'Carol' takes a rollicking new look at Christmas tale

By Anne Marie Welsh
THEATER CRITIC

December 10, 2001

---

DATEBOOK

---

"Carol, A Christmas Story"

8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays, through Jan. 6.

Actor's Asylum, 6663 El Cajon Blvd.
(619) 465-3742 or www.actorsasylum.org

 

 

THEATER REVIEW

The Good Ghost of Christmas Future sees this: A new "Carol" tradition taking root, the bumps getting smooth, the flat spots curved.

So it seemed at Friday's opening of the new Women's Repertory Theatre's "Carol, A Christmas Story." The show is an irreverent and also thoughtful rewrite of the Dickens story, with a high-powered female music executive as Scrooge -- Carol Scrooge -- and a procession of ghostly visitors culminating in a fearsomely silent spirit in a burqa.

That nearly invisible veiled figure points the cheapskate, male-modeled Carol toward her own death -- literal and emotional, a vision which leads toward spiritual transformation.

In this feminist burlesque, that means accepting Mom, warts and all.

Women's Repertory founders Todd Blakesley and Gayle Feldman co-wrote the show. They go over the top in goofiness and fantasy to make their serious points.

Psychologically Carol's journey toward self-acceptance has been described and theorized by such feminist writers as Adrienne Rich in her landmark "Of Woman Born."

But the theatrical collaborators take a wonderfully light, mocking approach to such material, putting Carol on a collision course not only with the ghost of her mother (M. Susan Niemann in an assured and welcome return to the San Diego stage), but also with her life-loving deaf sister (Lee Lampard, excellent), and the Crotchitt family, whose daughter Tiny Tina represents the culture's mutilation of women whose bodies aren't perfectly endowed.

Directed by Francine Chemnick, with the centered and soulful Helen Lesnick as Carol, the original piece still has a few bugs in both script and production. The Crotchitt family scenes need some reworking. Actors in secondary and multiple roles need more time to distinguish their characters. And the shoestring budget for this inaugural production sure showed.

Still, "Carol, A Christmas Story" has the kind of unbuttoned imagination, ideological conviction and madcap energy that so much San Diego theater lacks. It's a malleable show peppered with topical references -- postal workers in gas masks and latex gloves, for instance -- and that looseness bodes well for its future.

By this Thursday, when the show repeats, it may have lopped away some excess and gained more rhythmic confidence. Even as is, "Carol, A Christmas Story" introduces a promising new vision of theater from a woman's point of view.

 

Writers: Gayle Feldman and Todd Blakesley, based on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Director: Francine Chemnick. Set: Raylene Wall. Lighting: Rick Mittleider. Sound: Todd Reischman. Costumes: Carolyn Leone-Smith. Cast: Kristen Bentz, Lee Lampard, Helen Lesnick, Kieran Meltvedt, Jen Meyer, Laura Montes, M. Susan Niemann, Dana Pacheco, Raylene Wall, David Williams, Kit Gately.

Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

 

 

 

Pat Launer - KPBS

In a more political comic vein, local theatermakers Gayle Feldman and Todd Blakesley have created Carol: A Christmas Story, a deliciously feminist take on Dickens' classic, an inventive premiere for their new Women's Repertory Theatre. Carol Scrooge, a controlling, workaholic executive, delightfully played by Helen Lesnick, gives plenty of money away…she's stingy with her time. And her deaf sister (a terrific Lee Lampard) and adolescent niece could really use it. All she cares about is trashing her dead mother (droll MSusan Niemann) and getting young Tiny Tina big boobs for Christmas--so she can really succeed. Feldman and Blakesley have some really humorous ideas, just a few too many for one 90-minute play. The mother-daughter relationship issues could go; the anthrax, female, deaf and religious themes are quite enough for now. With trimming, this piece, only two months in the writing, could become a comical perennial. Power to the Women and the Women's Rep…

KPBS-FMAIRDATE:December21,2001
©2001 PAT LAUNER

Jeff Smith – The Reader

Carol: A Christmas Story
The new Women's Repertory Theatre opened its doors with a funny feminist take on Dickens's familiar tale. Like old Ebeneezer, Carol Scrooge is a self-centered exec (in the music business) with mammoth control issues and a permanent storm cloud above her head. Her mother died a week ago, but was she the boogey-eyed swine Carol remembers, or a far gentler soul? Three ghosts -- part scary, part Keystone Kops -- point the way (typical of the show's satirical humor, when they arrive, one orders another to "pose"; also, Carol tells the dark-robed Ghost of the Future to stand taller: "yer all hunched over"). Though a bit lacking in polish, the show's very funny and has a thoughtful side, about things that drive today's women, but don't have to, and about acceptance of oneself. Directed with a good eye for comic touches by Francine Chemnick, the show features Helen Lesnick as Carol, sharp, harried, and an uneven cast. Lee Lampard (especially as Carol's deaf sister, Francine) and Dana Pacheco (a riot as the Ghost of Christmas Past) make major contributions. Another standout is the space, called Actor's Asylum. It's a relatively deep 49-seat house not far from SDSU, with -- like Gail Feldman and Todd Blakesley's new company -- tons of potential.

Actor's Asylum, 6663 El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego, through January 6; Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Sunday at 7:00 p.m. For information call 619-465-3742.Rating: Worth a try.