San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
CYGNET’S WELL-STAGED ‘CAROL’ IS STRIPPED DOWN TO THE ESSENTIALS
Murray adapted, directed, stars in production
In the past three weeks, I’ve watched three filmed productions of “A Christmas Carol,” all with new stage adaptations performed by a male actor playing all the roles in Charles Dickens’ holiday tale.
The first was the La Jolla Playhouse’s co-presentation of a multimillion-dollar special effects-laden show starring Jefferson Mays. The second was North Coast Repertory’s festive, Victorian-style version featuring James Newcomb as a surprise narrator with a vested interest in Scrooge’s transformation. Now comes Cygnet Theatre’s production starring Sean Murray, which strips away artifice, surprise twists and even English accents, for the most part, to focus on the words of the 1843 novella.
Murray has produced, adapted, directed or starred in dozens of local “Carol” productions over the past 40 years and can probably recite the entire book by heart. But for this filmed version, Murray pared down the text to a fast-moving 68 minutes that trims away the merry-making fat of carolers, nephew Fred’s holiday party and much of the Cratchit family’s meager Christmas celebration.
Instead, it’s a story that leans into the darkness of the human heart, which is artfully visualized in blackand-white film, staged entirely on the mostly bare stage and seating galleries inside Cygnet’s empty Old Town theater.
Without the extra characters, scenes and distractions, there’s more time to focus on Scrooge’s abandonment, first as a child and then as a fiancé, two factors that helped turn him into the “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner” he has become as the story begins. Murray’s Scrooge isn’t so much evil and cruel. He’s more a broken and joyless man, withered by loss.
Wearing a wool coat, tie, jeans and Converse sneakers, Murray addresses the camera in a gentle voice, as if he’s telling the story to a friend rather than delivering it to an audience. Caroline Andrew’s noirish lighting is bold and evocative, but Matt Lescaultwood’s sound design is intentionally restrained. Murray’s only stage prop is a chair.
Yet despite the dark look of the film, Murray’s “Carol” has its upbeat moments. It’s especially funny when Scrooge tries to wheedle his partner Marley’s ghost into condensing the visits from the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future, and it’s playful at the end, when Scrooge is redeemed. There’s also an ear-pleasing score of Celtic fiddle music arranged by Patrick Marion and played by violinist Sean Laperruque.
Murray has said Dickens’ mission in writing the book was to encourage his readers to celebrate the Christmas spirit by opening up their hearts and wallets to the poor. Seeing those words delivered in a theater that’s been vacant since March, it’s a poignant reminder of how deeply the arts have been hurt by the pandemic this year.
pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com