Should the Alley consider a brighter ‘Carol’?
The vast majority of “A Christmas Carol,” at the Alley Theatre through Dec. 30, is washed in darkness. Ebenezer Scrooge’s bedchambers and workplace are both dimly lit by candlelight. Ghosts emerge from the depths of hell through a mouthlike hole that gasps with red steam. The characters’ dress is drab and gray, reflective of the poverty and disease of Victorian England — in other words, reflective of Dickens.
But is that the best approach for the most festive theatrical event of the year? Sure, the story of “Carol” has a happy ending — it’s about a grump who learns to embody the spirit and joy of Christmas. But the style of “Carol” is more in line with that of a haunted house. Its most provocative image is that of Jacob Marley, a dead man who returns to life in the form of a white, zombielike figure wrapped in yellow chains.
Free of bloodshed, cursing or sexual themes, the play is no doubt a family-friendly affair. But, after viewing this season’s iteration of the Alley’s annual holiday production, I wondered, when the time came for a redesign, if “Carol” could look better than it does right now. The answer is yes.
The maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies to holiday shows perhaps more than any other subgenre of regional theater. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, I love the existence of Christmas shows. Repetition of stories in art is usually condemned as lazy, but holiday programming is less about art than it is about ceremony. A story told again and again is a nod toward oral history, toward the beauty of sermon and toward that warm feeling you get when you sit down for Thanksgiving prayer. The holidays are a time for tradition.
That doesn’t mean you can’t change up the look every now and then, especially if your production, though distinctivelooking, seems to draw its aesthetic from the mind of Edgar Allen Poe. “Carol” takes place during the wintertime, which means it’s a time of white and green and red. I dream of snow angels, beautiful Christmas trees and the bright and weird possibilities for the Ghosts of Christmas. “Carol” doesn’t have to resemble the world of Dickens, who, as a novelist, highlighted the beauty of grit and perseverance in a harsh industrial world.
Though this production is already a departure from a more traditional imagining of the story, it could take one step further in livening up Victorian England’s color scheme.
Currently, a ticket to “Carol” also buys you entrance into, essentially, an art exhibit of several extravagant Christmas trees in the lobby of the Alley Theatre. It’s fantastic. The red carpet pairs perfectly with the trees, as do the bubbly blue drinks with pomegranate seeds they serve on the second floor (and whose prices Scrooge would surely approve of ). But when it comes to looking festive, the play doesn’t have to pale in comparison to its reception room. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come need not portend a dark, unchanging future — nor does he need to look like he’s stepped out of a gothic horror.