Unionville's ‘A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley’

The lights dim and the theater is silent. The audience looks around to discover that there are carolers processing down the aisles onto the stage. All eyes and ears are focused on them as they harmonize to the classic Christmas tune, "Joy to the World." As soon as the carolers hit the last note, the classic story of Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley begins. This weekend, Unionville High School portrayed a retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley.

Many know that there are numerous versions of Charles Dickens' classical tale. These re-tellings are portrayed not only on stage, but through film, radio, and television over the course of about 170 years. This specific version of A Christmas Carol was adapted by Israel Horovitz in 1979. Mr. Horovitz's adaptation follows the Dickens original meticulously but, in bringing it to life on the stage, adds elements of originality and brilliant theatricality, which enhances and strengthens its timeless qualities.

Unionville's production of A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, was very creative and enjoyable. This version added some humor to a rather serious plot, which made the production even more pleasurable. Every actor seemed to be very comfortable on stage, which kept the audience at ease.

Jacob Marley (Domingo Mancuello) was brilliant. He had wonderful chemistry with Scrooge (Michael Rosenberg). The chains not only added to the character but he used them to anticipate whenever he was about to enter. Mancuello had superb stage presence. Rosenberg's portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge was original and it made the character a bit more likeable. The Ghost of Christmas Present (Haley Janczuk) was marvelous. She had a quirkiness about her that made her character very appealing.

The Cratchit family was absolutely adorable! Bob Cratchit (Andrew Demarco) was very charming. Mrs. Cratchit (Megan Fraser) is extremely talented and I've never seen that character played better. Tiny Tim (Josh Friedman) was so cute and also has a lot of talent and tons of potential.

The sound (Sean Tierney, Jed Gunn) and the lighting (Sean Tierney, David Gottsegen) was flawless. All ques were right on time and during the show, I was never distracted by anything tech related. The sets (Rebecca Boon, Katie Long, Rachel Ritter and Chris Daly) were simple yet well done, and the set changes were very fluent and made the show move much more smoothly. Everything that the tech and stage crew did was very polished and well done.

This was a high quality performance. Congratulations to the cast and crew on a touching performance.