City Circle's Christmas Carol with a twist works well

by Meghan D'Souza

City Circle - When I read the title A Christmas Carol Radio Play for the first time, I subconsciously eliminated "Radio Play" and my mind flashed to my sole experience with the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. That would be when I watched Donald Duck portray the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in Mickey's Christmas Carol in the 1980s. So I knew the basics: Grumpy Rich Man hates Christmas and takes it out on everyone, especially his Poor Employee. Poor Employee is an overworked, underpaid family man, but still appreciates everything in life, particularly every breathing moment of his sickly son's life. Grumpy Man is visited by three spirits - Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future - and once he sees how his hurtful ways has affected everyone, yet they continue to live with love in their hearts, he changes and learns to spread joy and share his wealth.

I think everyone is familiar with this play in one way or another. We've heard of "being a scrooge" or Tiny Tim or some reference to the story. So what was fun about this play in particular was the "radio" twist. The play was set up so the actors were all sitting in a choir, except for six who spent the whole play specifically working on sound effects and narrating. Many of the actors in the choir also had roles in telling the story. This meant that the actors had to keep up their assigned persona while in the background with the choir, then take that persona to the radio microphone to act out a scene.

For instance, John Bednarik was I.B. Dramatico when he sat in the choir. As his character's name implies, he was dramatic, egocentric, and had a big presence on stage. Back in the choir, Bednarik was fabulous at being Dramatico at all times, in his facial expressions and in how he held himself. Then it was time for I.B. Dramitico to step up to the microphone as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Grand, spirited, and proud to be in the spotlight, it was clearly I.B. Dramatico playing the ghost, not Bednarick jumping to a new character. It is challenging enough just to explain, but to successfully act it out was no easy task. Top hats off to Bednarick.

Because this was a radio play, a lot was asked of the actors. Not only did they play actors who played actors, but they all provided sound effects, sang as a choir, some sang solos and played the piano and violin. As mentioned before, six actors in particular stood behind the choir and focused primarily on sound effects, which, combined with the lighting, really set the mood throughout the play. Before the play, I wondered if having them provide all of the sound effects as they told the story would be distracting. I am an easily distracted person and could see myself focusing entirely on how the sounds were made and forgetting about the story, entirely. I made note that rubbing chains together, throwing luggage down, shaking heavy aluminum, dropping a flower pot into a styrofoam box from approximately 9 ft high, among so many other actions, were used to make the story come alive. But it didn't distract me. Just as we watch movies without realizing that the background noises, all the way down to the footsteps, were added later, I hardly noticed that these sounds were being made by the people who weren't standing in one of the three spotlights. They just pulled me into the story. In fact, when the chains were combined with whispers and "woooo"'s of the choir to signify the arrival of a ghost, I was actually feeling pretty spooked. The lighting was dark, save for a spotlight on a shaken Ebenezer Scrooge, played very well by Josh Sazon, and a soft light glowing on the choir and slowly appearing on the ghost. It didn't matter that I could see who and what was making the noise; I can't deny that it was scary. Mission accomplished.

Actually, I felt everything emoted by Sazon. I love when an actor is 100% their character and Sazon was Ebenezer Scrooge. He was angry, he was troubled, he was frightened, he was upset, he transformed and became outlandishly giddy with joy. It all felt real. His booming voice just happened to be the perfect voice for an Ebenezer Scrooge, which is also perfect, considering this was for a radio play, but for those of us in the "live studio audience," his facial expressions pulled everything together and made it very real. I can not fathom seeing another A Christmas Carol played by a better Ebenezer. Not even Donald Duck.

This play featured 31 actors. Every single person pulled together to make this play the success that it was. The sound effects and story-telling techniques were a unique and refreshing way to watch a classic play. The choir sang familiar carols beautifully. The acting moved me. I could not have asked for more from a play.


Meghan D'Souza lives in Coralville with her husband and beloved dog. She is a University of Iowa graduate and works at the Iowa City Public Library. She has written for The Burlington Hawk Eye and is currently a freelance writer.