My very humble beginning on stage was at the age of seven. I was cast as Dorrit Cratchit in a production of A Christmas Carol at the legendary local Hedgerow Theatre. Now, Hedgerow Theatre has been doing A Christmas Carol yearly pretty much forever. It is a time honored tradition there, and even seven year old me understood that I was going to a part of something extraordinarily special. So I took up my confidence from a year or two of acting classes, and set my sight on that stage.
I already had a history at Hedgerow. My grandparents had taken me to see a show there when I was three or so. I don’t remember the show, but I remember walking down the steps in that theatre. I had started taking classes there at age six, though actual classes were down the road at The School in Rose Valley, a local private school. But let me tell you…Hedgerow is a magical place. It’s in a very old building and almost 100 years of theatre to saturate the very structure in a whispered history that takes you away from where you are, as a theatre should always do, of course. Many actors you would know have been on that stage. It is most definitely haunted.
This is just setting the stage, so to say. After that first year as Dorrit Cratchit (a name I believe is made up, as I don’t think she’s one of the Cratchit children named in the book), I reprised the role the next year. The following year I graced the stage as the Ghost of Christmas Past, a coveted role amongst Hedgerow’s child actors. Without even knowing it, a part of my young soul and passion seeped into the walls to join all the ones that had come before me. Hedgerow had a piece of me without me even knowing.
Shortly after this, at age ten, I moved to a different theatre. I had ended up at Hedgerow, a theatre half an hour away from us, initially because People’s Light, a much closer theatre, didn’t offer classes for kids that young. But at ten, I could finally take classes there. I don’t blame my parents for wanting to switch me to a theatre seven minutes away rather than thirty. So I said goodbye to Hedgerow, my home, and found a new home.
I didn’t look back.
Well, I did in some ways. Hedgerow was still my first home, the magical place where I had learned Shakespeare and Dickens and how to be on stage. But it took me a very long time before going back there. It was inconvenient, I said. It was too far, I said. I don’t know what it really was, but Hedgerow soon became a thing of the past. That’s life.
But as everyone knows these things are always in flux. I honestly don’t even remember the circumstances, but I wound up getting an invite to walk into a show. This was probably my mid-twenties or so, at least fifteen years since I had stepped foot at Hedgerow. And of course, it wasn’t just any show (you think you know where this is going…and you’re only sort of right). It was a one man version of A Christmas Carol. I guess that was the year to shake things up a little. So I sat in that theatre, and I felt my younger self all around me, and I cried as I watched a show that I still knew most of the lines to. Hedgerow Theatre is magical, remember? And I think A Christmas Carol is, too. Even for a Jew.
This story isn’t all about me, though.
Last night, I returned to Hedgerow (something I do regularly now) for a show. If you think you know where this is going…you’re only sort of right. This year, Hedgerow did another spin on A Christmas Carol- Canadian playwright Katie Leamen’s A Christmas Carol Comedy. You probably haven’t heard of it (wow, that makes me sound pretentious, but seriously this was its US premiere), but wow, was it one hell of a show. Just imagine, two actors. One playing Scrooge, and one playing everyone else.
Literally any character they chose to include. Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley, the three ghosts, Fred, Fan, various other Cratchits, various other minor characters, and of course, Tiny Tim.
Now, I expect that pretty much everyone has experienced A Christmas Carol in one form or another. You may have read it, or seen the movie (at least one version…hell, even the Muppets have one), or maybe you’ve seen it on stage. And if you haven’t experienced any of these, which I don’t think is even possible, you certainly know the story. “Bah humbug”, three ghosts, etc. etc. This almost 200 year old story has made its mark. The lessons can still be carried through to our modern times (you know who I’m talking about) and we’ve found a million ways to use it in the most creative ways (yes, now I’m talking about that Doctor Who Christmas special).
A Christmas Carol Comedy was a new and refreshing look at a classic tale. And excuse my language, but it was fucking hilarious. I am lucky enough to be familiar with both actors’ work, but even I couldn’t have anticipated what this show did for me. We were treated to a fast paced, ridiculously creative and well acted show. Christopher Patrick Mullen (Everyone Else) was all over the stage, as well as out in the audience. He tore through simplistic costumes (mostly headpieces) like a boss. Benjamin Brown (Scrooge) called his own shots hilariously. Their stage chemistry was unbelievable.
I couldn’t stop laughing.
A Christmas Carol is not a show you laugh at like that. But A Christmas Carol Comedy is. And you know what? Thank goodness for that. Times can be very dark these days. And I think we live our lives not even properly realizing that. Sure, we see the horrors on the news, hear them from the people we love, but these things burrow deep into our hearts, into our souls, without us even thinking about it.
The holiday season is up and down for so many people. We’ve commercialized and capitalized, and A Christmas Carol teaches us about there being more than this. People don’t listen to the lesson anymore.
So last night, I sat in that small, ancient theatre with one hundred people I don’t know, and I laughed my ass off with them. We cheered and clapped, and experienced something that we were very lucky to experience. It was true holiday cheer, in it’s very essence. Theatre is supposed to transport you, and that’s what this show did. It was a very new, very refreshing take on a very old story. Hedgerow worked its magic once again. I swear, that place is also sentient.
Every time I go back to Hedgerow, I feel something deep inside. It was my first real home, after all. And I think, even watching two actors comically work their way through what was my first professional play onstage, little Zoé was there last night, too. She definitely wouldn’t have understood most of it, but she would have laughed anyway. And like I said, Hedgerow took a bit of me from the time I was six. I’m never getting that back. I’m a part of that history.
I say keep an eye out for A Christmas Carol Comedy. If you ever get the chance to see it, definitely go see it. The holiday season can be so stressful and overwhelming. This was truly a beacon of light.
And as Tiny Tim says…
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