Review: THE TRIAL OF EBENEZER SCROOGE at Attleboro Community Theatre

The Attleboro Community Theatre(ACT) got into the Christmas spirit in the most hilarious of ways, with the side-splitting production of "The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge".

Set a year after Scrooge's transformation from miserly curmudgeon to loving boss and uncle and "friend to Tiny Tim", we find Scrooge back to his old ways and bent on putting Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future on trial for what they did to him exactly one year ago.

The Trial commences on Christmas Eve where we find Scrooge-like Judge Stanchfield Pearson, played perfectfully by Jim Cannizzaro demeaning his Bob Cratchit-like Baliff Mr. Connolly, played humorusly by Michael Long.  "The Trial is a waste of time," the judge says, as he removes two pieces of coal from the stove in the couthouse, "My time."  Scrooge, played hysterically by Alex Aponte, is representing himself in the trial "because he's cheap" as the judge indicates.  Compassionate defence attorney Solomon Rothchild, played by heart-on-his-sleeve Chris Sabatino, just wants to keep the wonderful new world created by Scrooge's revelations last Christmas Eve but is forced to drag characters like Bob Cratchit, played by Greg Beagan and Ghost Jacob Marley, played incredibly by Mark Carter, to the stand to explain their roles in Scrooge's transformation one year hence.

The story, written by Mark Brown after the Sept. 11 Terrorist attacks, he was stunned at the amount of love and goodwill to come out of the attacks only to see people return to their old ways of hatred.  He wondered how that would work with the legendary Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol".

While the Trial starts out as a farce with Scrooge not even bringing witnesses to the stand initially, Scrooge begins to make ground in his argument, first pointing out to witness Bob Cratchit that Scrooge has provided for the Cratchit family all along, which included a house and food on the table for eight people. Despite Rothchild stressing that Cratchit only makes 15 shillings a week and has never received a raise, Scrooge counters with "Has your family ever gone without?" with Cratchit answering "No". Scrooge also asked about Tiny Tim's condition, which had improved considerably over last Christmas Eve, all thanks to Scrooge's help. Cratchit admits Tiny Tim is no longer "near death" as he was. When Scrooge got to questioning Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future (we never see the Ghost of Christmas Present though the Baliff tried hard to bring him in), Scrooge asked Marley why he waited until seven years after his death to try and reform Scrooge.  When Scrooge had his nephew Fred on the stand, played by Michael Ferron, Scrooge documented that Fred visited each Christmas Eve and that the game of "Yes and No" they played last year personally attacked Scrooge.  Scrooge asked why Fred only visited once a year and did the same to Sara Ann Wainwright, played by Kira Santos, who was proud of her work in raising money for the poor around Christmas time.  Scrooge noted all the ways his tax dollars helped the poor all year long and asked why Wainright seemed to only care about the poor around Christmas.  Even in Scrooge's questioning of his former Fiance Bell, played by Isabelle Eaton, who was now married, Scrooge asked why she had left him. Belle talked about his new love for money and said "After all these years, you still don't know?" "I never changed toward you," Scrooge told her with gut-wrenching sadness.  "I loved you then and still love you.  I was a boy then."

When it came to questioning the two Ghosts-the Ghost of Christmas Past, played by Elianie Wallace, and the very talkative and extremely funny Ghost of Christmas Future, played hilariously by Alex Panagapoulos (he had a translator played by Ruthie Winters who talked "Dead"), Scrooge reported how they trespassed on his property last year, nearly giving him a heart attack.  Scrooge dug into the Ghost's routine (They had a seven year waiting list to reform people) asking why they only tried to reform people one night a year, on Christmas Eve, when there was 364 other days in order to help additional people.  To be honest, all of the above are viable arguments on Scrooge's part where the play begins to hunker down that it's not all it seemed at first.

Each year I try to find a different Christmas Play, something not "A Christmas Carol" or "A Christmas Story".  While this was written as a sequel to "A Christmas Carol", it's original enough and it makes you think well beyond the play. 

"The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge"-the second time ACT has performed this play first done in 2014, is an hilarious romp through a story most of you know all too well.  But it goes beyond the story and it will be interesting to see what many of you get out of this two hour performance with one intermission.  What really is redemption?  Are we doing enough-in a consistent way-to help people and have an impact.  Are we stuck in our ways and don't see there are other options that coul help people?  Let's all work a little harder!