What's Hot Recap: See "Dickens by Candlelight" this weekend!

Last week I recommended Dickens by Candlelight on my segment on WMFE 90.7 FM. I just got to see it. Here's the (excuse the pun) glowing review.

I wish I had more candles.

I’ve written by candlelight before but only once: in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley when the electricity was out for eight days and I had work to do. This evening, though, it would be a whim, a desire to extend the atmosphere of the show I’ve just left - but didn’t want to leave entirely - at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. 

Dickens by Candlelight,, produced by Kenneth Ingraham, is the telling of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol in a style that cleverly captures the feeling of a homey, Victorian Christmas gathering by bringing actors and audience together instead of separating them by seats and stage. One sits (if I may use the ultimate Victorian pronoun) with one’s fellow theatre goers in the cavernous old room of the historic Lake Ivanhoe building, made cozy by candlelight, camaraderie, homemade cookies and spicy tea poured from and into real, random china. The actors move among the crowd so the story is all around one -  one might even end up briefly becoming a prop. This way one gets immersed in a dramatic recreation of what is arguably the greatest novel ever written. A Christmas Carol, is, after all, ghost story, a comedy, a Christmas tale, a morality play and even a little sci fi. Add Dickens’ dizzying powers of description - he never illustrates anything with one word where 20 rich, vivid, sparkling ones will do - and add a happy ending.  Who could ask for anything more?

Audiences since 1843 have agreed, the best proof being the innumerable adaptations of the story. I consider myself a connoisseur of Scrooges from Alistair Sim to Jim Carrey and John DiDonna, the Scrooge of this production, gives a wonderfully funny and touching portrait of the iconic meanie. He gets Scrooge’s extremes just right, from soulless miser to merry angel, but it’s the moments along the way, wherein the monster is quietly humanized, where DiDonna really shines. The scene, for example, where Scrooge’s fiance, Belle, breaks off their engagement is one most of us have seen, read or heard countless times, and the fact that DiDonna makes it newly compelling is high praise indeed. 

Nearly all the rest of the I-can’t-count-how-many parts are played by Morgan Russell and Monica Long Tamborello who move deftly between being Crachits, ghosts, street urchins and Fezziwigs with an engaging joviality that’s perfect for this unique setting. Add a pre-show Christmas-carols-and- wassail and you are….I mean one is … perfectly set-up for this charming evening of a tale faithfully told. 

As of this writing the temperature is set to plummet (to almost freezing!), which will set the mood even more. There are just four performances left (today through Sunday) so go to  Dickens by Candlelight, and see A Christmas Carol the way a ghost story should be enjoyed: in high anticipation and cozy intimacy.