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Community theater exists for exactly that: the community. It gives people not involved in performance the outlet to try things they’d never done before. These are people with day jobs and a life already full of responsibilities who take the time to create something from nothing. It’s beautiful and it’s powerful.
It’s additionally for the community and allows friends and family the chance to be excited at live theater and cheer on people they know.
The point is to have fun and enjoy watching it or performing in it.
It’s like exhibition sports: it’s just supposed to be fun. And the East Mountain Community Theatre actors look like they’re having plenty of it.
Their latest endeavor is “Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge,” by Christopher Durang. The play is a silly, fourth-wall free adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” packed with as many lazy pop culture irreverences as it can slackly manage.
The best way to enjoy it is to not to expect too much, since the cast seemed to have received a single week of rehearsal.
The scene changes are bumbly and slow. The set and stage are oddly empty. The actors can’t stand still and mumble their lines in-between gawky dramatic pauses. Wigs are strangely colored or appear to be spun by hand. There are remarkably bad attempts at accents, and even the meta-self-referencing cannot excuse it.
The largest flaw is the God-awful script. Tame, innocuous references to modern events lack all bite and fall flat or moan sadly in their premature existence. Lines seem more often to comment on the plot loudly and then repeat to monotony. If you’ve failed to grasp the play’s simple events, have no fear. The characters will constantly state and restate what’s going on just to make sure it doesn’t get too stale.
Not all performances are so novice, however. Pat Peterman truly holds the play together with her surly and sardonic Mrs. Cratchit.
While much of the awkwardness of the production elicits unintentional laughter, Peterman is hopeful with her many enjoyable jabs and insults.
Additionally, Kevin McGuire does a delightful job playing Bob Crachit as a large-hearted idiot sporting a thick Cockney accent and producing honest laughs.
Largely, the play doesn’t feel so much like a production as people goofing off on stage, or a final project for a stagecraft and Acting II class. Many of the costumes are quite attractive, though it is difficult to focus on them with all the other madcap malarkey taking front and center.
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This doesn’t mean it can’t be improved or balanced. The script will probably still be the dregs of the English language, but another big problem is focus. Actors can pick up cues and not draw attention when it’s not their line. Most accents could be dropped entirely. Stagehands probably shouldn’t be given lines if they’re going to lifelessly mutter them, even if it’s unintentionally hysterical.
