A Classical Scrooge

William Dennis Hunt is one of L.A.’s most enduring and eclectic stage actors. He was a co-founder of the seminal experimental groups the Company and Provisional Theatres some 30 years ago. Since then he’s played a wide variety of roles, and now he’s a formidable Scrooge for A Noise Within at the Luckman Theater on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles.

From experimental theater to a classical company’s Scrooge might seem like a long odyssey, but in fact A Noise Within’s new adaptation by Geoff Elliott, co-directed by Geoff and Julia Rodriguez Elliott, is not particularly conventional in technique. It employs an ensemble of actors, dressed in long brown capes and black top hats, who not only take turns narrating (and occasionally stepping out of the capes into other roles) but also work as a group in selected scenes. One minute they’re suggesting the hustle-bustle of a busy London street with whimsical little wiggles, the next they’re somewhat more somber as the ghost of the future.

Though sometimes unorthodox in technique, however, this production is not revisionist in tone. Indeed, A Noise Within’s offering this Christmas is everything you always wanted in “A Christmas Carol.” You know the drill: melancholy soul-searching, heart-tugging sentiment, a final explosion of joy and redemption.

That last quality was conspicuously lacking in A Noise Within’s previous go at “A Christmas Carol,” in 1996. That touring production never fully shook off the ghosts and the chill.

This one, however, goes to great lengths to warm up A Noise Within’s new and larger home and generally succeeds. Certainly it’s all embodied in the performance of Hunt. A big man with a readily accessible scowl at first, he becomes a big, awkward, delighted baby in the production’s final moments.

Michael C. Smith’s big set fills the big stage nicely with versatile scaffolding, a mobile staircase, a whirling bed and a backdrop that’s evocatively lit by James Taylor. Norman L. Berman’s score sets the right tone with a pensive overture and continues to keep this “Carol” lyrical and lush.

BE THERE

“A Christmas Carol,” Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., 5151 State University Drive. Tonight-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. Ends Sunday. $26 to $30. (323) 224-6420. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.