Local actor Geoff Johnson and Merely Players have turned a page in Durango’s theatrical history.
Portraying 18 roles in the company production of “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol,” a comedy/drama written by playwright/actor Tom Mula, requires tremendous skill and stamina. Johnson has both in abundance. And with Director Mona Wood-Patterson’s ever-evolving imagination, the performance sets a new standard in form and content for every actor and every company in our corner of Colorado.
When Johnson simply walks onto a cozy set that suggests a Victorian parlor replete with a fireplace, Oriental rug, a desk, chairs and candlelight, he appears in a plain gray suit. With a book in hand, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Johnson engages the audience as a mature, modern-day media host. He reads the opening lines of one of the most famous stories in the Western world. Then theatrical magic unfurls.
If you go
WHAT: “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol,” a comedy-drama by Tom Jula featuring Geoff Johnson, directed by Mona Wood-Patterson.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center Drive.
TICKETS: Sold out. Get on waitlist. $32-$36.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.merelyplayers.org or call 749-8585.
Old-fashioned storytelling morphs into a fresh take on the well-worn Dickensian tale. Johnson’s gray-suited narrator changes into a multitude of characters – Marley, a snarly record keeper, various spirits, a Cockney boy and, of course, Ebenezer Scrooge. Through posture, gesture, movement and a variety of vocal techniques, Johnson creates an entire universe. The actor easily conducts believable conversations between two characters – and sometimes three – by shifting positions or tilting his head or changing his voice. Differentiating every persona, Johnson then slides seamlessly back into focus as the narrator.
Credit a fine actor, a superb director and a skillful playwright.
Mula, 73, was born and bred in Illinois, and admits to being fascinated by Dickens from childhood. Early on, he memorized the 1939 “Carol” recording by Lionel Barrymore, and at age 14 got the Marley role in a youth theater production. Later he majored in theater at the University of Illinois, and went on to build a career with Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. It was there that he played Scrooge for seven years in the annual holiday production of “Carol.” During that time, a chance conversation about Marley’s secondary status in the story sparked the idea of rewriting a piece from the ghost’s point of view.
In the mid-1990s, Mula began by writing a novel and putting on informal readings. A positive Chicago Tribune review led to the 1995 publication of the novel. The Goodman Theatre mounted the first production of the play on Dec. 4, 1998. Since then, Mula’s Marley-centered retelling has been performed roughly 400 times both in the one-man format or with four or five actors.
Here in Durango, Wood-Patterson wisely chose Johnson to bring Marley and company to life. Over the last 25 years, Johnson has portrayed a record number of characters from the stages of Durango High School, Fort Lewis College, the Durango Arts Center and throughout the Southwest -- as far afield as Santa Fe. The Players’ program notes: “After 25 years of performing, he is thrilled that this will be his 25th production with Mona Wood-Patterson.”
So, credit Johnson and Wood-Patterson plus her creative team for setting a platform on which Mula’s vision of Marley comes to life. Credit Technical Director Charles Ford and his team for the illusion of a Victorian parlor enhanced by projections of a Yule log, starry skies, and myriad images that support tone and text. Sound and light effects crackle into place and are especially effective when the green-lit ghost of Marley appears and hauntingly resonates in an echo chamber. Unforgettable.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
