STAGE REVIEW : South Coast’s ‘Christmas Carol’ Overcomes Familiarity to Capture Season’s Warm Glow

There was the distinct sound of sniffles from the audience Thursday night at South Coast Repertory when Ebenezer Scrooge paid a visit to the Cratchit family.

Now a cynic might say, “Bah! What do you expect? It’s the flu season.” But then, a cynic has no business at “A Christmas Carol” in the first place.

This familiar story demands the conviction that the spirit of Christmas can transform even the hardest of hearts. Dickens staked out this territory long ago, and the production at South Coast Repertory embraces it with a wash of warm sentiment, good cheer and ingenious invention.

But first it has to earn that pesky conviction, and it does. The adaptation by Jerry Patch captures both the shadow and light in Dickens’ story, and director John-David Keller goes about building Dickens’ case on details and insights, not easy emotions.

Start with the visual clues. There are literally lights and shadows in the evocative lighting by Donna and Tom Ruzika. Black edges surround pools of warmth, and the mottled shadows of Scrooge’s bedroom practically invite apparitions to appear.

An insistent wind shivers behind the dialogue, bearing down on bundled-up street vendors huddled against the cold. That cold is spelled out again by the look on John Ellington’s face as Bob Cratchit caught in moral turmoil over adding just one coal to the puny fire at the accounting firm of Scrooge and Marley.

In obvious contrast is the warm glow that emanates from the homes of the Cratchits and Scrooge’s nephew, Fred. But here, that glow is more a product of the emotional connections that pass between family members and friends than the overhead lighting. Still, the edges of these scenes are dark as well, summoning up an image of ports in the storm.

This version includes the requisite ghosts and the mandatory visit to the graveyard to send chills down the spine. But even more chilling is the eerie sight of scavengers picking through Scrooge’s personal effects, cackling over their own gall to have picked his pockets before the undertaker did. The final nail in the coffin--for Scrooge as well--is the haunting presence of ragtag children representing Want and Ignorance, pawing through a trash can on a dark street corner. This production knows exactly when to stack the deck.

So does the cast. Three allusions to business receive three distinct interpretations as the script progresses, starting with contempt, followed by despair and concluding with celebration (and the promise of wealth spread and shared).

Ellington and Marilyn Fox as the Cratchits radiate chipper fortitude without turning it into a cliche--not an easy task. Howard Shangraw, as Scrooge’s maligned nephew Fred, has the equally tough task of waxing sentimental on the Real Meaning of Christmas. But Shangraw wades into those speeches with plain-spoken conviction and makes them work.

The uphill battle here falls to Hal Landon Jr. as Scrooge. Perhaps because the audience knows what’s coming, or perhaps because the character of Scrooge has become a part of comically sentimental folklore, the audience was ready to laugh from the moment Scrooge unleashed his first “bah.”

Consequently, Landon has to go back and painstakingly lay the groundwork to ensure that Scrooge is viewed as a genuine curmudgeon. Otherwise, his eventual transformation is simply a foregone conclusion. Landon manages, by making every mutter and gesture count. (Watch him wave off Fred’s gift with a mixture of annoyance and fear, or clutch his desk as if it contained his very identity.) The bitterness feels real, and so does the joy that follows.

Of course, a cynic would attribute it to high fever. ‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’

A South Coast Repertory production based on the story by Charles Dickens. Adapted by Jerry Patch. Directed by John-David Keller. With Richard Doyle, John Ellington, Marilyn Fox, Art Koustik, Hal Landon Jr., Martha McFarland, Ron Michaelson, Jennifer Parsons, Bryan Rasmussen, Howard Shangraw, Don Took. Set design Cliff Faulkner. Lighting design Donna and Tom Ruzika. Costumes Dwight Richard Odle. Sound design Stephen Shaffer. Music direction Diane King. Plays at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday. Added performance Tuesday, Dec. 22, at 2:30 p.m. No performances Christmas Day. Closes Dec. 27. Tickets $15-$18. South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, (714) 957-4033.