'Marley's' no Scrooge

SCOTT WHITED
PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Ever find yourself thinking, during your annual holiday musings, "I wonder what that Jacob Marley was really like? I know Ebenezer Scrooge, I know his story from past to present to future, but not Marley. Who was he, really?"

If you have, then you're in luck. The Impossible Players opened a two-week run of "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol" by Tom Mula at their Main Street Playhouse last night, and it answered those pesky questions for a modest-size audience in jaunty fashion.

Mula's variation on Charles Dickens' seasonal classic used a four-person cast to combine narrated story-telling and dramatized mini-scenes in an imaginative conglomeration that might have worked better on radio than on stage.

The first act set up the central conceit: Telling Scrooge's familiar tale, but from the perspective of his deceased business partner, but the crowd was left asking how this story was going to be new and different. Not to worry. The second act provided a creative twist or two on the original, but the uplifting spirit that has charmed the English-speaking world for over 150 years was left satisfyingly intact. Still, the overall effect of the show's presentational style was not as satisfying. Interesting, yes, even occasionally intriguing, but this viewer was left with the feeling of having watched an elaborate two-hour story time at the library, only with more performers, better sound effects, and a very nice set. The script broke a cardinal rule of playwriting: Too much telling and not enough showing.

The young cast was admirably committed to their portrayals. T.J. Cordova played the title character with vim, vigor, verve, and a penchant for uninhibited shouting and howling. He threw himself into the part, and more than once onto the floor. One might expect no less of a man who finds himself in hell, but the volume on the shouting might not have needed to be turned all the way up to "11" so often.

Schmidt was pleasant and perky as the last of the 132 angels left on the head of Marley's pin. She was an attractive accomplice in his efforts to "transfer" out of hell. William Hanks brought an impressive range of interpretation to his Scrooge. He was a bully, a miser, a conniver, and a born-again apostle of Christmas, each distinct from the others, each believable in and of itself. Adelita Fierro acquitted herself well as the utility thespian, bringing a variety of accents - sometimes more than one within the same character - to her smorgasbord of roles. The most heart-warming was her stuttering, bespectacled Bob Cratchit.

Unfortunately, theater is still a medium where showing trumps telling almost every time.

"Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol" continues at 8 p.m. tonight and Wednesday through Dec. 13. Call 542-6969 for tickets.