‘Marley’s Christmas Carol’ gives miser second chance
Dickens redeems Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” but what about Jacob Marley? Is he doomed to clunk around eternity wearing the chains he forged in life?
Tom Mula’s “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol” extends the universalist implications of Dickens’ holiday story to Scrooge’s deceased partner, giving Marley a second chance to turn toward the light.
Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s fully staged, multi-camera production of “JMCC” began streaming online Thursday for ticketholders. Former Rep mainstay Lee E. Ernst had signed up to return as Scrooge in a full production of the traditional “Carol” before the pandemic struck. After COVID-19 infection rates and city health regulations made that impossible, director Mark Clements and Ernst switched to Mula’s script, which allows Ernst to perform as a one-actor show.
Ernst plays the Storyteller, who narrates Marley’s journey while also acting the various characters through voice changes, facial expressions and movements. Arriving in the afterlife, Marley finds himself in a Victorian counting house full of leather ledgers, where the Recordkeeper informs him of his pending damnation — unless he can persuade Scrooge to have a complete and irreversible change of heart over the next 24 hours. Marley is aided by the Bogle, a snarky guardian imp who would surely be played by Patton Oswalt in the Disney version of this story.
Mula’s script scrupulously respects the Dickens story. Ernst occasionally reads from a small red hardcover of “A Christmas Carol,” handling it with the reverence of a sacred text. One differci ence between the tales is that Scrooge’s arc is passive: he takes in what the Spirits show him and gradually changes. But Mula’s Marley has to make things happen on deadline, so we get to watch him fumble, experiment and devise stunts even the angels hadn’t imagined.
Of the many personae that Ernst incarnates, I was most taken with the Bogle, of course, and the Recordkeeper (whom I can’t help imagining might be the heavenly Big Guy masquerading as one of his underlings). Ernst gives Scrooge a critical shrewdness, making it clear to Marley that he won’t be a pushover. Ernst allows us to see Marley groping his way mentally and emotionally toward his final action.
After seeing a fair amount of Zoom theater recently, it was a pleasure to watch a fully staged production — HMS Media videoed it at the QuadracCharles Powerhouse. Dan Kazemi makes a critical contribution as onstage music director and Foley artist, creating dozens of sound effects and enhancing theatricality with his voiceless presence. A drama about the battle for a man’s soul in Victorian England and the bardo requires dynamic lighting, too, which designer Jason Fassl delivers.
With a quiet, somber frame story, Clements’ production also acknowledges how the pandemic has disrupted our lives and traditions — and put many theater artists out of work indefinitely. Kazemi and Ernst arrive on stage wearing masks; Ernst briefly faces the Quadracci audience of empty seats.