| Ebenezer Scrooge, performed by Eric Hayes, listens as witnesses testify in the Court of Judge Stanchfield Pearson (background) in a Black Swamp Players production of ‘The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge’. (Photos: Enoch Wu/Sentinel-Tribune) |
Apparently Charles Dickens had it all wrong.
After a night of ghostly visitations, haunting if you will, Ebenezer Scrooge did have "further
intercourse with Spirits."
As "The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge" would have it, just a year later, on "of all the good
days in the year, on Christmas Eve," Scrooge pulled Jacob Marley "and his hooligan
friends" into court complaining of all manner of threats, stalking and physical and mental
distress.
The Black Swamp Players are staging "The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge," directed by Leroy Morgan,
Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and continuing Dec. 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 18 at 2 p.m. at First
United Methodist Church in BG. Tickets are $10 and $8 for seniors and students available at Grounds for
Thought, 174 S. Main St., Bowing Green.
The play by Mark Brown is a clever twist on the beloved Christmas tale, which has endured more than its
share of twisting. The play shows the action and lessons from a different angle, all the while using
many of Dickens’ choicest turns of phrase, often given new purpose and voiced by different characters.
| Ebenezer Scrooge questions defendant Jacob Marley, performed by Chris Schermerhorn, of whom is being sued by Scrooge in the Court of Judge Stanchfield Pearson. |
| Lawyer Solomon Rothschild (right), performed by Stephen Becker, questions witness Sara Wainwright, performed by Karrie Bergman, as she makes a statement against Ebenezer Scrooge. |
| Lawyer Solomon Rothschild, right, questions witness Bob Cratchit, performed by Chris Schermerhorn. |
That’s evident even before the title character even steps on stage, as the presiding judge the stern
Stanchfield Pearson, played by director Morgan, enters and pulls down the seasonal greenery festooned
about the courtroom by the bailiff (Connor Long). The parallels between the bright, high-spirited
bailiff and the flinty, ill-humored judge and Scrooge and his clerk Bob Cratchit are evident from the
start.
The play’s title is somewhat misleading. It’s not Scrooge, played with stony demeanor by Eric Hayes, who
is on trial, rather the various characters who populated his long night of redemption.
Defending them is the flamboyant and obsequious barrister Solomon Rothschild (Stephen Becker). That
Rothschild is Jewish is referred to several times, but seems quite arbitrary. There are among us some
who are a shade particular about "A Christmas Carol" and there are elements that grate, but
it’s better to set such quibbles aside.
As the trial progresses we’re introduced to various familiar characters, Bob Cratchit (Chris
Schermerhorn) and his wife played by Kate Frishman, the nephew Fred (Nate Miller), the person soliciting
donations for charity (Karrie Bergman), Scrooge’s sister Fan (Skylar Frishman), Scrooge’s beau Belle
(Maggie Long) and the old charwoman (Bergman).
Then there’s the spirits of Christmas Past played with a mischievous glee by Alyssa Pike and the shrouded
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, again Miller, who needs his own translator of his groans and grunts.
Hali Malecki plays the translator as full of spunk.
The Ghost of Christmas Present is too busy making his rounds to appear at the trial. He is represented
only by a recording of a tuba playing the opening phrase of "Good King Wenceslas" – I’ll leave
it to my readers to figure out the humor in that selection.
Most of the comedy is not that subtle. Bergman is a hoot as the charwoman who stripped the nightshirt
from Scrooge’s corpse. There’s a long discussion of the word "pilfer," which she think has
bawdy implications.
There are touches of pathos notably in the scene in which Belle and Scrooge argue about their parting.
Scrooge is not as hard-hearted as he is portrayed.
There are other hints of that as Scrooge questions the witnesses. In the end, the audience may realize
that Dickens has it right all along.
