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 | Union Station. Seattle, WA March 1, 2007 |
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« "Commander In Chief" | Main | Pac-Man vs. Blinky @ U of M » December 21, 2005"A Christmas Carol"I caught the 8:30 performance of "A Christmas Carol" at the ACT last night with Richard and Elaine. Richard had managed to secure three single tickets on fairly short notice - and don't ask me how, because the show was sold out. Now, my memories of Dickens aren't terribly fond. In fact, they're mostly informed by reading things like "Great Expectations" in seventh grade; I remember his material as being pretty verbose and overwrought - the dude was writing serials, and was clearly paid by the word. But "A Christmas Carol" is one of those holiday classics that you're supposed to see, like "It's A Wonderful Life" (which is a pretty good film) or "Nutcracker" (whose popularity continues to baffle me). That said, last night's performance was awesome. My expectations were exceeded on several levels. First, the play was adapted, which meant it was cleaned up and streamlined, taking out a lot of the turgid prose. Second, it was done in a "theater in the round" style, which meant the audience was sitting in a circle, facing one another, with the actors and actresses in the middle (coming and going from tunnels that lead from backstage). They made excellent use of a hydraulic floor and props being raised and lowered from the ceiling. It's imaginative and novel. Third, the set design and effects were perfect. And fourth, finally, the performances themselves were just outstanding. The 90 minutes flies by, and you really get a sense of Scrooge's transformation from a hard-hearted old bastard into someone who really understand the value of love. We're on a bit of a theater kick this week, and off to see "The Santaland Diaries" tonight at the Bathhouse. Look for a post about that sometime tomorrow. UPDATE, April 1, 2007: One or more of the original hyperlinks on this page expired, and has been dereferenced. The hyperlinked text is now underlined. Posted by Gavin Shearer at December 21, 2005 11:28 AM. Posted to Entertainment. CommentsPost a commentThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)« "Commander In Chief" | Main | Pac-Man vs. Blinky @ U of M » |