The Actor’s Gang is one of the best theater ensembles in Los Angeles. The Artistic Director is Tim Robbins, so naturally they usually present rather edgy material, often with a political slant. Their Christmas undertaking is a reworking of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens into a raunchy piece called Scrooge Must Die (in which he almost does). It would seem to be a perfect fit - the updating presents a story of people constantly screwing each, other literally and figuratively. And Scrooge’s near-comeuppance towards the end is basically a statement by the playwright Angela Berliner that he got off easy in Dickens.
The play is mainly effective because of the level of talent in the “renegade” company. Another company attempting this could have produced an embarrassment. Scott Harris does a terrific job of portraying Berliner's totally hedonistic, negative, evil Scrooge. He is funny as well as frightening. Justin Zsebe is not far behind in gross-out humor playing the obnoxious Marley, whom Scrooge throws to the dogs when he dies. Chris Schultz is Bob Cratchit. Seth Compton, Anne Brashier, Heather J. Thomas as the hooker daughter, and Elora Dannon as the blank-faced Tiny Tim make up the rest of the family. Cousin Fred is R. J. Jones, Steven Porter is Scrooge's disgusting father, Toni Torres is Belle, and Emilia Herman plays Fanny.
Berliner directs her own piece and keeps things lively, raunchy but in control, making sure things are funny. Surprisingly, there are several moving moments in the piece, despite the destruction of the Dickens story.
However, I, for one, would rather have seen this company take on the original story instead of settling for this travesty. It's well done, but it gives us nothing new except images of sexual abuse. Though the program lists the dates of Dickens’ life and sets them in historical context, that doesn’t really justify this treatment of a classic. "Bah Humbug," you might say, but I happen to love the story and I am willing to see a new take on it if it helps to illuminate it further.
The true test of the company's mettle might have been to do it straight. In this version, there are a lot of laughs, and the acting is good, but I didn’t really see the point, because Dickens does it better.
Scrooge Must Die plays at the Ivy Substation in Culver City until Jan. 10 with Christmas week off.
Article comments