By Christopher Durang. At: A Reasonable Facsimile Theatre Co.(at The Cornservatory, 4210 N. Lincoln). Phone: 773-418-4475 ; $12-15. Runs through: Jan. 2, 2011
In the world of entertainment, Christmas is more like "the most predictable time of the year." Around the holidays, audiences demand pageantry, tradition and comfort, and so productions such as Goodman Theatre's 30-plus-years run of "A Christmas Carol" have become local mainstays.
But rather than submit to the sweaters and fruitcakesor completely ignore the clamor for holiday cheermany theatre companies grasp for alternative December programming. This year, A Reasonable Facsimile Theatre Company is the first in Chicago to try on "Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge" from noted parody and absurdist playwright Christopher Durang.
The show is an over-the-top spoof of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life"a complete toppling of the traditional holiday canon. One can understand the allure of such a play to a smaller company such as A Reasonable Facsimile, but a Durang work is never as simple as a goofy, offbeat alternative. His humor, though seemingly just a barrage of outrageous gags and amusing side comments, is calculated, and it takes an entire ensemble of gifted professional comics. And despite their charisma, A Reasonable Facsimile's cast doesn't have enough of them.
These Christmas classics as we know them go awry when the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future (Samantha Garcia) and Mr. Scrooge (Steve Hickson) visit the poor and overpopulated Cratchit family a bit ahead of schedule and the normally silent Mrs. Cratchit (Tina Haglund) decides she's had enough of being poor and determines to get drunk and jump off London bridge.
All three aforementioned characters are the centerpieces of the play, but more often than not, they struggle with the material as would most who aren't well-practiced in irreverent humor. Scrooge's "Bah hum-bug!" Tourette's outbursts among other gags that run throughout the show fall flat and simple physical comedy, such as the Ghost repeatedly shocking Scrooge with a magical Taser, fail every time. Garcia, as successfully as she charms the audience with her eccentric mannerisms, struggles with transitioning between her role as narrator and comedian. Mrs. Cratchit is written to be "above" the play that Haglund has trouble making her belong. Durang forces in the humor so excessively at times that these actors can hardly keep up, and between them and director Michael Buino, they struggle to cope.
Several supporting cast members, however, find success, usually by doing a better job of creating full characters while also subtly conveying an awareness of being in a play that's not to be taken too seriously. The naïve but self-centered Tiny Tim squeezes laughs out of repeated exclamations of "God bless us, every one!" and Bob Cratchit plays sharply off other characters' absurdities.
Durang's spin on this material is not all for the sake of being humorous, but that's mostly how it comes off in this production. He intends to highlight that the miserable and difficult lives of the characters in these classic stories cannot, realistically speaking, be mended by an epiphany about Christmas spirit. A Reasonable Facsimile's production, however, comes across as simply a whacky take on Christmas favorites. So while the company unlocks the goofiness of "Binge," the humor is not as deep and resonant as it could be.