A Christmas Carol with Charles Dickens
Lillian Theatre
(1078 North Lillian Way, Hollywood 90038)
A production of Independent Shakespeare Co.
Date of reviewed performance: December 20, 2008
Cast
Mr. Dickens - David Melville
American Actress - Mary Guilliams
As tends to be the unfortunate tradition with my reviewing shows by ISC, this review is of the next to last performance of this production and is thus too late for any of you to see it. Do take heart, however, that ISC tends to put up this production every year - so you can go ahead and mark your calendar for the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas NEXT YEAR to reserve a spot at this show.
ISC co-founder and regular star, David Melville (who was most recently seen playing a splendid Hamlet), portrays Mr. Charles Dickens in this skewed take on a very familiar story. Here the Ghost of Marley, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Tiny Tim and even Scrooge himself are merely characters in a story being weaved by Charles Dickens. As we've seen in past performances, Mr. Melville is quite the ham and so giving him the opportunity to shift among several fictitious characters through the layer of Dickens' point of view is quite a sight to behold. Though as much work as he does (which is quite a fair bit), he is not completely alone as he has help in the form of a young American actress, played by Mary Guilliams, who periodically provides theme music and dramatic input to break up the monotony of what would otherwise feel like an incredibly long monologue. Ms. Guilliams has appeared in other ISC productions this season (and was likewise in Hamlet), though she generally appears as an ensemble player. In a sense, the same could be said of her role in this production...albeit an ensemble of one...but it was nice to see her in a more focused role and she did the job well.
As Dickens tells his story, all of the required elements make their appearance right on cue: humor, regret, fear and redemption culminate as expected in burden-free joy. Of course, I am a big ISC cheerleader and David Melville always brings me joy with his performances; but the two-actor nature of this production does make it feel like a very long show. It is easy to understand why they continue to perform it in this manner: fewer actors to wrangle during the holiday season, plus the concept of it being told in a different way (and by Dickens himself, no less) makes it interesting to market. I would, however, rather like to see ISC mount a production of A Christmas Carol in the traditional way, and perhaps one day they will.
A Christmas Carol with Charles Dickens:
