Center Repertory Company’s West Coast premiere of an new adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” offers something for everyone.
Charles Dickens’ classic story has a man and a community grappling with timeless themes such as choosing empathy over profit, offering acceptance without judgement, recognizing the wisdom of children, while also reflecting near the end of life on one’s past, present and future.
Presented Dec. 10-21 at the Walnut Creek’s downtown Lesher Center for the Arts, the two-act, roughly two-hour production was adapted by playwright Harrison David Rivers in collaboration with Sally Lobel and is directed by two-time Obie Award-winning theater artist Jared Mezzocchi.
The Center Rep cast is joined by Berkeley-based AXIS Dance Company. The AXIS ensemble founded in 1987 includes disabled, non-disabled, d/Deaf and neurodiverse professional performing artists and is led by Artistic Director Nadia Adame and Executive Director Danae Rees.
“The impetus for this production is rooted in our Strategic Plan to bring more new work to our stage,” says Center Rep’s Artistic Director Matt M. Morrow. “Our partnership with Axis Dance Company also stems from our Strategic Plan, which calls for linking arms with other like-minded, community-based service and arts organizations.”
Mezzocchi notes River’s adaptation keeps the traditional 1800s Victorian London setting and costuming, but has a mild shift in that it is the young Tim Cratchit character who makes the wish that Scrooge would change. “It’s really about the community allowing Scrooge back in once he has transformed. Do they have that capacity when led by the youngest?”
The reason to collaborate with AXIS he says is tethered to the script’s narrative being shaped by Tim.
“Through his lens, he sees the world and a lot of other children with disability just like him,” Mezzocchi adds. “That brought in Nadia and as we’ve worked, it’s been life-changing for me. I told her I wanted to get over the hump of the idea we have that a disability is a compromise. From Day 1, we had two performers in wheelchairs starting the show. I realized every performer has tools to tell a story. A person in a wheelchair has opportunities a more able-bodied person provides differently. It became an additive thing. Looking at what is possible in the person in front of you is never a compromise.”
When casting Ebenezer Scrooge, Mezzocchi sought an actor able to embody the “big, mean, agitated Scrooge,” but also a person who could engage in intense conversations and not just “drop to his knees and say, ‘I’m changed,’ because that’s what’s asked for in a scene.”
For Tim, he looked for actors (the role is played by two) who were playful. Young actors with a broad sense of adventure and the command to play a strong character who does not need approval from adults in the room to project wisdom. “The two young actors are leaders and wise in getting to a place of laughter and joy without judgement.”
Mezzocchi is nationally recognized and acclaimed for the nuanced interplay between live storytelling and multimedia technology in his work.
“I always come at the use of technology from human first. I make sure a piece is driven by human spirit and intentions,” Mezzocchi says. “I find ways for the digital sound, light and video projections to become extensions of choices made as an ensemble. I hone in on beat changes in a scene that are pivot points of a character’s wants being achieved or not achieved.”
By hooking a digital element to the narrative shape, he says a production’s design remains connected to the characters. Light changes and videos might amplify Tim’s buoyant personality, track along with Scrooge’s discovery process, or have a ghost’s design be specific to looking back or snapping into present awareness, for example. “It’s easy to make beautiful stage pictures, but what’s more difficult is how design is serving character, not just world-building,” he says.
Avoiding falling down the rabbit hole of dazzling hi-tech tools requires deliberate awareness, Mezzocchi insists: “My biggest signpost is the performer. It’s like a return to the basics of acting. If the performer feels friction, then I’m in the way of storytelling.”
In one ghost-of-future sequence, he envisioned the Crachit household being fractured, with walls, doors and the family scattered across the stage. “I loved it as a picture, but the actor playing Bob Crachit said it felt counterintuitive to what he wanted as a father holding this world together. He wanted to be with his family, not separated.”
During the development of the scene in rehearsals, Mezzocchi and the actors determined the tension of the fractured lighting could be allowed to build instead of eliminated, making the moment when the family comes together more dynamic. “When they hug, the scenic pieces come together as Scrooge realizes where the future could take him,” he says. “It’s what theater does so well; showing the darkest thoughts in the design, but having characters fight for what they want. At the scene’s end, they remain together in a warm spotlight.”
What audiences want in the post-pandemic world of 2025 with its constant political whiplash, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as ongoing racial tension, gun violence and economic disparity, Mezzocchi notes has changed radically.
“The pandemic showed us what the world looks like when we are in a closed room alone,” he says. “It changed our definition of community, how we seek it, how we behave against someone not in our community. This version of Christmas Carol asks what happens when someone deemed outside is showing change and asking to be let back in? We have hard lines around that community space and what does it require to open the door back up?
“People are ready to ask themselves hard questions. This story challenges needing a safe space. We are in a state of both armor and fatigue. A story so traditional and familiar is a soft entry back into that conversation.”
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.
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For tickets or details online, visit centerrep.org/what-s-on/25-26-season/a-christmas-carol.