INTERVIEW: ‘Christmas Carol’ at Merchant’s House feels more poignant than ever
Photo: John Kevin Jones co-adapted and stars in A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum, which in 2020 will be presented virtually. Photo courtesy of PR rep / Provided with permission.
This time of the theatrical year, there are usually numerous productions of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In a normal year, one can see the financial and poetic satisfaction of presenting the well-known tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim for audience members.
In 2020, when theaters are shut down due to COVID-19, there was the possibility of having nothing but the cinematic adaptations of the Dickens’ tale, but theater professionals insisted the show must go on. That was the mentality of the team behind A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum in New York City. Rather than having audience members head to this historic building in Manhattan, sit in an atmospheric parlor for a couple hours and hear the wondrous recitation of actor John Kevin Jones, something different was called for.
Jones and the team decided to present his beloved production virtually, and better yet, performances are free from Dec. 18-24 (a $30 donation is requested). The parlor is still open. Jones is still interpreting. And viewers still have the chance enter the Merchant’s House for some yuletide cheer.
And let’s be honest, with 2020 being so difficult for so many people, the lessons of A Christmas Carol are as poignant as ever.
“I really look forward to performing,” Jones said in a recent phone interview. “When we decided that we couldn’t do it, it was actually a very mournful and tearful experience for me. We really had to take some time. We needed to get through my emotional response before we could start to move forward, and then we decided, well, we did want to tell the story. We felt like these words are important. I don’t know that they’ve ever been more important. I don’t know how else to phrase it. It’s such a mixed season of feeling, so I felt like this really had to happen. Therefore we moved forward, and the idea was born.”
What audience members will see from the comforts of their own living rooms is nearly identical what they would experience at the Merchant’s House. It’s December 1867, and Dickens (Jones) has arrived in New York City for a month of sold-out performances of his celebrated Christmas classic. It’s fitting that the Merchant’s House hosts this production because itself is a perfectly preserved example of 19th-century life in New York City.
“We haven’t filmed it in new and various ways,” Jones said. “We had actually done a little bit of testing on our own to see what we thought about different ways of marrying the material to the medium, and what I continued to find was for us getting back to who we are as live theater artists was serving our purposes best.”
There was a thought of filming A Christmas Carol in different parts of the Merchant’s House, but they decided the parlor was still the best location (Jones’ Edgar Allan Poe adaptation may take the full-house tour at some point in the future).
“That was not something we wanted to do with this particular piece because we just felt like it sings where it is, and it’s been so faithful to us in that parlor,” he said. “So it is in the parlor, but it is a more advanced setup than a laptop. We had several cameras. We’ve done several takes. We hope that what it provides the audience in this regard is a closer look at my telling of the story, a deeper look.”
What the virtual production does is allow everyone to have a front-row seat, which is actually a nice opportunity because the Merchant’s House is intimate, and when nearly 60 people are packed in to the parlor, sight lines can be different for each patron.
“Our house at Merchant’s House is just a great place to perform,” said Jones, who adapted the piece with director Rhonda Dodd. “It’s a beautiful space, but obviously you get 48 to 58 people in the front and rear parlor, and some people’s views are not as clear as others. We do the best we can. We do try to emphasize that you will see most of it, and also my voice is really telling the story. So we really try to focus on the vocal aspect of the piece as well, but in this case everybody has a great view. So in this regard we can give everybody a front-row view.”
When Jones performed the piece for the recording this year, there was no audience except for some crew members. He actually said the crew members were perfect in the room. One of them even needed to take a small break from filming because the performance moved him so much.
“I thought that was really sweet, so I feel like at least we affected one person this year,” he said. “Maybe a few more, I don’t know.”
Performing in front of a few crew members is quite different than 50 or so paying customers, and Jones appreciated this new reality. He decided to simply perform the piece without anticipating what the reaction might be when people tune in at home.
“The feeling of the crew in the room certainly gave me the feeling of having people to perform for, so there was that heightened sense of performance,” Jones said. “I do perform it straight through. Several times we did it straight through. We changed the camera angles as we would move from performance to performance rather than trying to find some sort of filmic perfection moment. That’s just not what I do, not who I am when I’m performing this, so I wanted it to be more real, more in that moment. But I do feel it changes my performance to a certain degree because of course when people don’t laugh you don’t have to pause for it, and so you shouldn’t pause for laughs that aren’t there, so I don’t.”
He added: “It does kind of bring me back to where we were in 2011-2012, the years of development and the year we were at Theatre Row off-Broadway. Those first years we would perform for seven people in a matchbox apartment in Manhattan. We performed for 10 people in a meeting hall or wherever we could, and so having that experience in my back pocket with performing for very small audiences and understanding the value that brings to the piece, the depth it brings to the piece, it actually came back into play. So I was able to draw on that experience. It was a very positive experience all the way through.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House, starring John Kevin Jones, will stream for free Dec. 18-24. The production is presented by Summoners Ensemble Theatre in association with the Merchant’s House Museum. A $30 donation is recommended. Click here for more information.
