INTERVIEW: No humbugs here! Just Thom Sesma as Scrooge in ‘A Sherlock Carol’
Photo: A Sherlock Carol features Thom Sesma as Scrooge. Photo courtesy of Evan Zimmerman / Provided by Emily McGill Entertainment with permission.
There are few literary characters more iconic and memorable than Ebenezer Scrooge, the villain-turned-reluctant-hero in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Many an actor has played the part on screen, on TV and on stage, and this year, it’s Thom Sesma’s turn.
A Sherlock Carol, a new mashup of Dickens’ classic story and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales, is now playing at New World Stages in New York City. The holiday run of shows not only includes Sesma, but also Drew McVety, Dan Domingues, Anissa Felix, Isabel Keating and Mark Price. Mark Shanahan is at the helm of the production, serving as both writer and director.
The premise for the show is anything but elementary, dear Watson. A grown-up Tiny Tim employs the help of Holmes to investigate the murder of — shocking — Scrooge himself. No doubt some ghosts will get in the way of Holmes’ careful sleuthing.
Sesma is an accomplished actor who has appeared on stage in everything from Letters of Suresh at Second Stage to Unknown Soldier at Playwrights Horizons. Recently the actor exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox and opened up about his love for Dickens and how he kept busy during the pandemic. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What attracted you to the role of Scrooge?
It’s funny — I don’t know that any actor would call Scrooge a dream role until they’re actually lucky enough to start working on it. And once you do, there’s a sort of Richard III challenge to it — how to make it your own, when we have so many vivid memories of how so many moments have been played over the years, by Alister Sim or Michael Caine or George C. Scott or Albert Finney — and I think in that search to make it your own, without ever being imitative, even unconsciously, makes it the ideal actor’s challenge. You’re always on a genuine search for the elusive truth of who this character is, and how you can make him your own, and it’s that that makes it so attractive. It’s almost as if I have always been attracted to him without ever knowing it.
Are you a fan of Dickens’ original story? How about Sherlock Holmes?
I’ve always loved A Christmas Carol. I can’t recall a time when I read it or watched any faithful version of it onscreen where I wasn’t moved deeply, not just by Scrooge’s journey but by the story of the community he inhabits. There is more humanity in one paragraph of the tale than there are in any libraries without a copy — if you can imagine that.
I discovered Sherlock Holmes in my late teens and devoured all the stories and novels, I think, in one summer. I was and remain a big fan, and I’m fascinated by all the adaptations, both faithful and un-, in print, on film and TV and even recordings. And it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve heard a story, I absolutely adore the varieties of interpretation the work lends itself to — that’s a sign of really brilliant writing.
What’s it like to work in this ensemble?
Oh my God, showing up for rehearsal every day was a treat. It was a master course in clowning, in the classical sense. I’m often asked what my favorite moment in the play is, and it’s never anything I’m doing, because in my estimation, all of my efforts pale next to the joy, invention, spontaneity and sheer acting brilliance my colleagues bring to pretty much every minute of the play. So there’s that, and the fact that each of them is an amazing human being.
How was your experience in Letters of Suresh? Was it exciting to get in front of a live audience again?
Letters of Suresh stands as a high point, if not the high point in my creative career. Everything just seemed to intersect in this production of this play, including the time and place we were doing it. The play itself, the role, the simple directness of the text, the spiritual and emotional depth of the subtext, the spirit of the play, the humanity of the team that created it, and the cast that performed it, along with the ups and downs, the steps forward and setbacks of managing the production (we lost a weekend of performances owing to a COVID outbreak in our building) … the making of this play on a nightly basis represented a microcosm of human endurance at this moment in our collective history that I never could’ve imagined. The weight of that will never be lost on me. I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder to have been a part of anything else in my life.
What kept you busy during the pandemic when live theater was not an option?
I was very, very lucky during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. I had a lot of opportunities to work steadily, if not regularly, doing a fair amount of remote, live-stream work, as well as a little bit of TV and film. A day never passed that I wasn’t incredibly grateful. But I also used the time away from the business of the business as a period of personal reflection and growth, and like many people began to examine how broken and unfair so many things in our society and culture have been for generations. I marched, demonstrated, I worked in a food pantry at a nearby parish, and I “attended” mass online almost every day. And I also managed to get away for an extended stay in a little cabin by a lake in western Massachusetts last May. All in all, it was an incredibly rewarding time.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
A Sherlock Carol, starring Thom Sesma, is now playing at New World Stages in New York City. Performances continue through Jan. 2. Click here for more information and tickets.
