The horses’ contributions are so much more impressive than the humans’. But the horses are great and so are their teamsters. So let’s start there.
At the Caravan Farm Theatre’s winter shows, horse-drawn sleighs — or wagons, depending on how much snow there is — carry audience members from performance site to performance site on the theatre’s 80-acre farm, which is just outside Armstrong, BC.
Point and Shoot, the equine team that pulled the wagon I was in, were so responsive to teamster (driver) Melissa’s guidance. To get the audience into place at each of the stages in the fields, all nine wagons perform precise choreography that’s especially impressive given the enormous size of the animals: Point and Shoot are a Percheron and a Belgian; there are also Clydesdales in the mix.
But the show itself: oh dear. Virtually nothing works.
Playwright Peter Anderson’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is so stripped down that it contains zero emotional resonance. Represented by a large doll, Tiny Tim isn’t even a character in any meaningful sense. Tiny Tim is the heart of the story, the innocent victim of capitalist greed, and the lynchpin of Scrooge’s transformation, so his virtual absence from this adaptation untethers the entire project.
What’s left feels like a series of skits, quick visits to the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet To Come.
In this production, the visual concepts for those visits might have looked good on paper, but they don’t work in real life. Catherine Hahn has designed giant puppets to represent the ghosts, but “puppets” is stretching it: they’re awfully static. Christmases Past and Present are basically huge masks on poles. Their heads turn and each has one minimally moveable arm. The heads are kind of pretty, but that’s not enough; they don’t come to life.
The scenes involving Christmas Past also use shadow play: Scrooge’s sister, his romantic interest, the Fezziwigs, and so on, all appear as shadows projected on a white screen. In the expanse of a large field, the resulting visuals are small and dull. Part of the problem is that the wagons are so far away from the action.
Of the ghosts, the ghoulish Christmas Yet To Come, which grows from nothing to a great height, is the most dynamic.
And then there are the performances.
Elinor Holt is, frankly, awful as Scrooge: under Estelle Shook’s direction, Holt’s performance is marred by deliberate and alienating artifice, the way she trills her Rs in the line “There is more of gravy than of grave about you” for no good reason, for instance. Too often, Holt seems more concerned with delivering eccentric line readings than creating a character.
Among the supporting players, Hailey Christie-Hoyle is barely a presence as the charity lady.
That said, Daniel Doheny holds his own as Scrooge’s nephew Fred. Although oddly cast, Tom Jones does a decent job as Bob Cratchit and he has fun as Marley’s ghost. Bruce Horak brings charm to this adaptation’s narrator, Charles Dickens. Pro that she is, Laara Sadiq is givin’ it as Mrs. Cratchit and other characters, but her Mrs. Cratchit has the only sustained English accent in this production, which is stylistically sloppy.
The storytelling isn’t up to much. But it is a pleasure to be in the open air. And, after the performance, you’re allowed to get closer to the horses.
A SLEIGH RIDE CHRISTMAS CAROL Adapted by Peter Anderson from the Charles Dickens original. Directed by Estelle Shook. A Caravan Farm Theatre production running at the Caravan Farm outside Armstrong until January 5. Tickets and information
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