Almost every holiday season for the past 50 years, San Diego theaters have staged Charles Dickens’ holiday novella “A Christmas Carol” in a myriad of ways, including as a traditional Victorian play, a musical with songs and puppetry, a 1940s radio drama, a three-ring circus and live-capture videos.
But the Old Globe’s new, stripped-down version of the tale, performed in the round by just one actor, is one of the most effective stagings I’ve ever seen. Without scenery, costume changes, music or special effects, Tony Award-winning actor Jefferson Mays weaves his own theatrical magic with little more than Dickens’ words and his own spellbinding performance.
“A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story Told by Jefferson Mays,” directed by Barry Edelstein from a script adaptation by Mays, Susan Lyons and Michael Arden, celebrates the ancient art of storytelling and the power of the imagination.
On Friday night, there were two elementary school-age girls in the audience and I wondered if the pared-down, 80-minute play would hold their attention. From beginning to end, both girls were enthralled, and the rest of audience also leaned forward in rapt attention, then leapt to their feet for a sustained ovation at the end.
This isn’t just Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” It’s Mays’ memory tale of watching his parents read the book aloud to him and his siblings each holiday season. He relates that story at the beginning of the show. Then at the end, he gives a copy of Dickens’ book to one audience member as a way of ing that storytelling tradition along.
Edelstein’s intentionally informal staging begins with Mays casually entering the theater without fanfare and the house lights up. Instead of the usual recorded pre-show reminders, Mays delivers them himself. He uses no microphone and he wears an understated brown suit with no necktie.
Mays is a master character actor, famed for playing up to 50 characters in solo plays. Besides a great facility with voices and the nimble agility of an acrobat, Mays has a hugely expressive face and eyes that potently transmit vulnerability, fear, grief, joy and wonder. He’s always in motion, walking, jumping, dancing, writhing and crawling — thoughtfully playing to audience on all four sides.
The great treat of this play is watching him slide in and out of the book’s characters, who each have unique characteristics. His greedy money-lender Ebenezer Scrooge cruelly spits out his words with snide disdain. His rictus-faced ghost of Scrooge’s partner Jacob Marley howls and moans with regret and physical pain. His gleeful Fezziwig giddily leaps around the stage. His rambunctious Cratchit children chaotically scrabble around on the floor. And his ethereal ghosts of Christmases past, present and future eerily float up and down.
One beauty of seeing “A Christmas Carol” without all the window-dressing is that I could focus more on Dickens’ beautifully descriptive words and heard ages from the novel I don’t in most other stage versions, so the story felt new again.
Mays’ “Carol” is a must-see, but it only runs through Dec. 22.
‘A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story Told by Jefferson Mays’
When: 7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Through Dec. 22
Where: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, the Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: $64 and up
Phone: 619-234-5623
Online: theoldglobe.org
