With Kate Buckley, the director of Among The Thugs and A Few Good Men, at the helm of this year's Christmas Carol, audiences might have anticipated the Cratchit children marching through the streets of London on a rampage. Most noticeable about Buckley's interpretation, however, is its singularly un-violent nature. Gone are the searing images and volatile emotions associated with the Henry Godinez Carol of recent years, replaced in this 25th anniversary production by a more even-tempered verging-on-bland ambiance. Gone also are many of the spectacular special effects -- Marley slinks out from behind the door instead of bursting from the fireplace, for example, but the Ghost Of Christmas Past is still flown in (played uncomfortably by Lisa Dodson).
William Brown wisely does not attempt such acrobatics, but presents an uncaricatured Scrooge more in keeping with modern notions of greed and complacency than with Victorian practice of making characters' outer appearances conform to their inner psyches. The results are probably more accessible to a greater variety of playgoers, but if joy is only appreciated when contrasted with sorrow and fear, Buckley short-changes us on all counts.
