MRS. BOB CRACHIT'S WILD CHRISTMAS BINGE, A REVIEW
MRS. BOB CRATCHIT'S WILD CHRISTMAS BINGE
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
The San Francisco Playhouse is currently performing a hilarious spin-off of Charles Dickens' immortal classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
The spoof—entitled MRS BOB CRATCHIT'S WILD CHRISTMAS BINGE—was written by one of our country's most successful gonzo playwrights: multiple-Obie-Award-Winning Christopher Durang (c.f. BEYONE THERAPY, LAUGHING WILD, DURANG/DURANG, BETTY'S SUMMER VACATION, etc. etc. etc.)
Director Joy Carlin has rightfully given this show its intended not ready for prime time, rough around the edges, work in progress, maybe we should call the writer, let's just go with what we've got, maybe we should close and go vacation in Mexico with lots of tequila, panic attack feel.
Although no one would expect any two performances of a show to be quite the same, in the case of MRS BOB CRATHCIT one is certain that each performance is a distinctively unique experience and each performance has ample elements of artistic impulse, creative risk, randomness and chaos.
MS Carlin has loosened the reins to achieve an improvisational feel.
As a result, the show is imbued with a sense of gaiety, fresh fun ness, non sequitur, non-linearity and unbridled stage energy.
The net effect of all of these ingredients is a spontaneity rarely experienced in traditional theatre—especially a Christmas show—unless undomesticated live farm animals are used without a competent animal handler present.
If all the traditional holiday fares and hibernal fantasies—that inevitably involve either Sugar Plum Fairies, Grinches, Wise Men, Drummer Boys, Hallelujah Choruses, Snow Men, Santas, errant Stars, Kringles, a Good Life, Prancing and Dancing Cervidae, Serendipitous Snow Falls and Miracles on the streets of New York—have grown a little too traditional and as stale as last year's panettone, this is probably just the radical detour from the straight and narrow that you desperately need.
And, this departure from expectation is available without a prescription.
Furthermore, this antidote to holiday ennui will not get you fingered on your next random urinalysis.
San Francisco stage stalwart Keith Burkland plays the upbeat, resilient and ever-compliant Bob Cratchit.
Cathleen Riddley—the saucy Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future—has the talent to not only to flesh out her character but, to go well beyond her character to the extent that she is effectively auditioning for any and all upcoming San Francisco musical dance comedies.
Howard Swain—who dares you to confuse him with Victor Talmadge who alternately performs Scooge—has created an Ebenezer that enjoys suffering not exclusively for the sake of simony: Swain's Scrooge has penchant for all things dolorous: his infatuation with suffering contains a de Sade twist and nod the kinky, the erotic and the romantic.
Unlike traditional versions of Dickens' story, Swain's Scrooge ardently connects—at the primal and endocrinal level—with MRS Bob Crachit, played by Joan Mankin.
Having been a miser all his life, Scrooge has the means to lift MRS Crachit out of the sordid London slums of the 1840s—where she hates everything about her life and wants to leap off the London Bridge—and deliver her to the Big Apple: New York City and the vogue world of snobbish indifference circa 1977.
In short MRS Crachit, leaping free of her karma, Bob, their 21 children and the London time zone, gets to become a Leonora Helmsley sort and Scrooge ascends—or descends if you will—to a become clone of Donald Trump.
If there are miracles imbedded in MRS BOB CRACHIT'S WILD CHRISTMAS BINGE, then casting—by Annie Stuart—is probably one of them.
Even the youngest actors—like Olivia Scott Dahrouge, Henry Kinder, Madeleine Pauker, Gideon Lazarus—all have a spunky exuberance and confident stage presence that is more than commensurate with the superlative cast of adult stage stars.
The entire production is a radiant diamond in the rough that reflects the stage excellence that has become the hallmark of Artistic Director Bill English and Producing Director Susi Damilano.
This production should earn Bill and Susi a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award—if not, then at a minimum a trip to Mexico to escape the doldrums of San Francisco winter.
If you are tired of cutting Christmas cookies—or cookie cutter Christmases—and would like to explore the festive lunatic fringe this holiday season, get thee to MRS. BOB CRACHIT'S WILD CHRISTMAS BINGE.
For tickets contact the box office via http://sfplayhouse.org/ or call 415-677-9596.