Master Thespian’s A Christmas Carol isn’t the same old Scrooge-eventually-sees-the-light storyline familiar to many passersby.
Mark Lerman knows he has a lot of competition. The western end of Duke of Gloucester Street during the holidays is a dazzling display of lights and decorations.
“There are even really great dogs competing for attention,” he said.
Judging from the sizable crowds that pause to enjoy Virginia Theatre Machine, though, it’s Lerman’s eccentric spectacle that steals the show.
Virginia Theatre Machine is the vehicle—a foldable, one-ton, tow-behind trailer—that actor Ed Whitacre, Lerman and a small, behind-the-scenes crew use to stage a comedic twist on a Charles Dickens classic.
Master Thespian’s A Christmas Carol isn’t the same old Scrooge-eventually-sees-the-light storyline familiar to many passersby. Whitacre’s character is on an ever-doomed quest to act out A Christmas Carol in 30 minutes or less. Lerman, an adjunct professor of theater at William & Mary, rewrites the play every year so that some new wrinkle foils those plans.
The changing storyline is one of the reasons many locals return to see this year-after-year, according to Bob Evans, a Queens Lake resident. Evans, his wife Nancy Feigenbaum, and their daughters, now young adults, have seen the production since Lerman began putting it on a decade ago.
Lerman’s wit and whimsy appeals to a many people “in terms of age, but also in terms of what tickles their funny bone,” Evans said. The script mingles slapstick humor with subtle references to eclectic topics ranging from pop culture to great literature.
That popularity occasionally throws a curveball onstage. Front-of-the-crowd kids sometimes try to talk to the performers. Mishaps at nearby Liberty’s Ice Pavilion bring lights and sirens. Lerman said that acknowledging and adapting to interruptions has become second nature. “We’re scripted, but street theatre always has a degree of improvisation,” he said.
Weather, too, sometimes puts a damper on things; Williamsburg’s holiday season is more likely to bring rain than snow. To the audience’s credit, onlookers often stick it out to the end. But Lerman said hope springs eternal; twice in his 10-year run, light snow has fallen, a splendid special effect.
This year, Lerman and his team are performing every weekend from Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, which falls on a Sunday this year. “Our last performance will be December 24, at 5pm,” he said. “What would be better than a light snowfall then?”
Here’s hoping for a Christmas miracle!
Virginia Theatre Machine’s show times are posted on merchantssquare.org.