Bag & Baggage Productions presents "Charles Dickens Writes a Christmas Carol" at The Vault Theatre in Hillsboro. The cast features (from left) Jessica Geffen, Kymberli Colbourne, Andrew Beck, Peter Schuyler, Jessi Walters, Joey Copsey and Morgan Cox. (Casey Campbell Photography)
By Lee Wiliams | For The Oregonian/OregonLive
Not to snort a sour "Bah, humbug!" but just how many Tiny Tims do we need in two counties?
From North Portland to downtown Hillsboro, at least five forms of Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" are on or about to hit the boards.
There's the folksy take from Portland Playhouse (running through Dec. 30). Stumptown Stages has the Broadway-style musical through Christmas Eve. Prefer an irreverent Ebenezer Scrooge? Well, here comes "The Second City’s A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens" at Portland Center Stage (Dec. 5-31).
All we're missing is the Occupy-inspired adaptation from the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
Over the weekend, "Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol" opened at Bag & Baggage, the Hillsboro theater company that really digs plays with titles that double as plot summaries. (Its last production: "The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Murder at Checkmate Manor.")
Bag & Baggage Productions presents "Charles Dickens Writes a Christmas Carol" at The Vault Theatre in Hillsboro. The cast includes (from left) Morgan Cox, Joey Copsey, Jessi Walters, Andrew Beck, Peter Schuyler (Charles Dickens) and Jessica Geffen. (Casey Campbell Photography)
Sourced from the 1843 novella and Dickens' diary, Bag & Baggage artistic director Scott Palmer's busy adaptation aims to expose Dickens' chaotic, comedic, frustrating creative march toward what Palmer calls "the second-greatest Christmas story ever told."
As with the Christmas season itself, the length of this play could be cut in half and still be as merry.
In this "Behind the Music" approach, the characters in "A Christmas Carol" are as yet unformed, so they beg for more development; offer plot suggestions, running criticism and notes; and generally heckle Dickens (played by Peter Schuyler). They are muses and pests, inspiring and aggravating the author — and, after two hours, the audience a bit, too. Worse, these asides eat up time that could be used for more fresh insights into the making of the holiday classic.
"Charles Dickens Writes" then slips into a somewhat basic production of "A Christmas Carol." Which is not a terrible thing, just all too familiar.
Bag & Baggage Productions presents "Charles Dickens Writes a Christmas Carol" at The Vault Theatre in Hillsboro. Kymberli Colbourne plays Ebeneezer Scrooge. (Casey Campbell Photography)
The laughs are warm and cheeky, not sarcastic, and pretty much in service to the goings-on. The staging — in the company's slick new Vault performance space in downtown Hillsboro — is skeletal with some standout lighting by Jim Ricks-White and truly scary ghost effects from scenic designer Megan Wilkerson. (Bag & Baggage mounted this work previously in its old home, the Venetian Theatre down the street, which was set to be sold, but now sits dead. Dead as a doornail.)
The cast members dash in and out of multiple roles and accents as efficiently and energetically as Amazon workers filling Christmas orders. Seeing Kymberli Colbourne turn Scrooge from prickly miser to incredibly sympathetic hero is sure worth the drive from any surrounding county.
Line of the night
Marley: "It is I, Bob Marley!"
Cast: "No, we've used that."
Marley: "It is I, Jacob Marley!"
Dickens: "It'll do."
Bag & Baggage Productions presents "Charles Dickens Writes a Christmas Carol" at The Vault Theatre in Hillsboro. The cast includes Kymberli Colbourne (Scrooge) and Jessi Walters (Ghost of Christmas Past). (Casey Campbell Photography)
Strengths
Palmer also directs "Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol" and that effort is sharper than the writing. Hustling actors in and around corners of the thrust stage while building the story's suspenseful and sweet moments, Palmer creates a very inhabitable retelling.
Ricks-White has designed specific, elaborate light schemes for each ghostly visitation, and with Melissa Heller's costumes, the apparitions of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come are distinct, new personalities.
Weaknesses
Palmer and Colbourne invest much creativity and compassion in this Scrooge. Their Dickens, though, is a disappointment. In the program notes, Palmer describes the author as "playful," "hilarious" and "wacky." Yet Dickens is written, directed and portrayed as a frenzied, hyper-obsessed artist — a stock character madman in the same vein as Beethoven in "Immortal Beloved" or Dr. Finkelstein from "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
Adding to the running time of the presentation? Five Christmas carols sung to completion.
Bag & Baggage Productions presents "Charles Dickens Writes a Christmas Carol" at The Vault Theatre in Hillsboro. The cast includes (from left) Peter Schuyler (Charles Dickens), Jessica Geffen and Kymberli Colbourne (Scrooge). (Casey Campbell Photography)
Takeaway
A solid retelling but a shaky retooling of "A Christmas Carol" that doesn't deliver as much insight as promised. Certainly what Bag & Baggage ends up with is far from a lump of coal, but this peek-past-the-curtain doesn’t sparkle like a diamond, either.
"Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol"
Where: The Vault Theater & Event Space, 350 E. Main St., Hillsboro
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 23
Tickets: $27-$32; bagnbaggage.org or 503-345-9590
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