Remember Scrooge? The heavy who lightens up in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol?” Well, he is back; this time in a courtroom comedy at Taproot and guess what? He’s hopping mad.
This west coast premiere has the tightwad that everybody loves to hate suing everybody and everything that badmouthed him in the classic that no Christmas is complete without.
In other words, playwright Mark Brown’s “The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge” raises the Dickens with Dickens. It’s a hoot that hollers.
From his get-going “Bah! Humbug!” that gets this madhouse going, Nolan Palmer, the new and improved Scrooge, speaks dialogue that keeps you at his mercy. Vou have no idea where you are and what’s ahead. Palmer’s got you blindfolded, hands tied behind your back and led by the nose. He is surly, pitiful, rageful, certainly dead serious and above all else, cunning beyond anticipation. Vou don’t know until the final curtain, what in God’s creation he is up to.
To Kevin Brady falls the anything but insurmountable task of making the case that Dickens and his audiences have been making for generations. Or so things seem.
Brady plays Solomon Rothschild, attorney for the defense and advocate for the parade of Dickensian characters called as witnesses to give testimony against Scrooge before his conversion. Brady as Rothschild is friendly, perhaps a bit too friendly with the ladies, somewhat selfserving, certainly unsophisticated and definitely articulate. His case is simple, and he makes it. They did what they did for Scrooge’s own good.
Larry Albert as the mousey Bailiff with a booming voice, counterpoints perfectly with Steve Manning’s starched-shirt judge who can’t begin to control his courtroom. And the rest of this very fine cast, directed by Scott Nolte with confidence, ought for sure to add virtuosity to their resumes.
There is Linda Christianson as Fan, Belle, Christmas Past. Bill Higham as Jacob Marley and Bob Cratchit. Sabrina Prada as Mrs. Cratchit, Sara Wainwright, Mrs. Dilber. And Sam Wilson as Fred and Christmas Future.
This is holiday entertainment updated for our electronic age. It is charged with emotion, conceptually efficient, humanistic in design. You can’t see it without reacting. You can’t watch it without laughing. You can’t leave it without thinking.
By the way, the jury in this case is the audience. Dollars to donuts, you will decide for Scrooge. What do you think?
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