Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Trinity Repertory Company

Trinity Rep’s 48th rendition of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” hit the stage this week and for the first time in its nearly golden anniversary run of the plays performance, it was held at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

With the Chace theatre under construction, Trinity turned to PPAC officials months ago to help them pull off their 48th season of “A Christmas Carol”, a tradition dating back to 1977 when the Dickens piece became synonymous with Trinity Rep and its creative flair to reimagine the classic Christmas tale each and every year.

This year was quite the change indeed, not only with its ever-changing content but also with the theatre performing the production at PPAC which runs from November 23 to Dec. 4 before returning for a final run Dec. 26-29th to make way for other PPAC productions.

The 48th annual edition featured the super-talented Anne Scurria, who was part of the 1979 Trinity “A Christmas Carol” production, as a super-ornery Ebenezer Scrooge. Scurria’s Scrooge seemed so dark that you often wondered if even the ghosts could save her. Katsuto Sakogashira donned the famous scarf of Bob Cratchit, a truly emotional Cratchit who emotional scene in the Ghost of Christmas future’s Tiny Tim scene was beyond touching. Tobias Wilson played a spirited Nephew Fred, who countered Scurria’s curmudgeon-ness with a genuine love and laughter that made me want to see more of him then the tale would provide. Mauro Hantman plays an incredible Jacob Marley,  with a ZZ Top beard but a scary darkness that matches Scrooge’s own.

The production begins with narrator(reader) Rudy Cabrera walking a young child (green cast this night-there’s also a red kid cast) Firo Oliva Ridge through some of the early Scrooge and Marley history and the latter’s death some seven years prior. Hannah Spacone was a wonderful Ghost of Christmas Past, so loud and in-you-face, a perfect original ghost to pierce Scrooge’s doubts and help force her first thoughts of regret. Newport native Nora Eschenheimer made her Trinity debut as a pregnant Ghost of Christmas Present and Annmarie Kelly dons the dark and silent Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Only the Reader, Scrooge and Cratchit got away with a single role as everyone else in the production had two, three or sometimes four roles in the two-hour production with one intermission.

Each year, Trinity works hard to introduce a number of different aspects to the play with the reader being different than some prior years but one of my favorite new parts came the role of Scrooge’s Butler Mr. Dilber played perfectly by Alex Leblanc. When the butler was providing the ornery Scrooge with her Christmas Eve dinner, Scrooge was clearly not giving Dilber Christmas Day off like she had Cratchit but Dilber didn’t miss a trick. “Perhaps I’ll slip a little joy into your tea tomorrow morning,” Dilber said while Scrooge scoffed. Dilber’s character was, in fact, in the original Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” but is rarely featured in any rendition. And there’s other differences too but I’ll leave that up to you to see and feel. Trinity does work hard at stressing that this is a Rhode Island tradition and you’ll see why-(wait for the mention of a bridge issue)-all of it simply hilarious.

Trinity’s annual “A Christmas Carol” is always a treat for the entire family and while they clearly had to adjust to a massive new stage in PPAC that sacrificed some of Trinity’s intimacy, the production was nonetheless fabulous and a clear crowd favorite. It’s the kind of performance that always puts you in the Christmas spirit in a year where it’s needed more than ever.

Photo by Mark Turek

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