Every December the Chicago theater community goes into full holiday mode, producing a wide array of favorites for reliably sold out houses. COVID obviously has altered many traditions, and theatrical performances have been forced to digitize operations or simply skip this year.
Manuel cinema hadn’t planned on doing a holiday show this year, but when COVID paused the theatre community, they pivoted and began work on a “Christmas Carol.
Working as an ensemble; the narrator (N LaQuis Harkins), the musicians (led by Ben Kauffman) and the shadow puppeteers (helmed by Lizi Breit), Manual Cinema creates a near perfect contribution to Chicago’s holiday theatre landscape. Manual Cinema’s production team has impressively navigated the hurdles of our newfangled telecommunication to present this intricate performance live every night without hiccup. In fact, their telling of ‘A Christmas Carol’ seems more suited to this format than a traditional theater space.
In rich textures and arresting original music, Manual Cinema creates gorgeous imagery with overhead projections, shadow puppetry and other clever slights of hand. There is truly nothing else like it, and yet so much of it recalls the warmth of classic Christmas TV specials like ‘Charlie Brown’ and the Bass Rankin films.
Instead of a tried and true standard adaptation of the Dickens story, this version is framed out by the narrator, Aunt Trudy, played by N LaQuis Harkins. Trudy is suffering from the loss of her husband, Uncle Joe, who used to put on a puppet show every Christmas. Trudy struggles with the Zoom call as she banters with her family and the show gives way to the Dickens tale.
This production does not ignore the elephant in the room, and though it seems too soon be part of our Christmas narrative, Manual Cinema deals addresses the realities of COVID without getting political. Given this work is so timely, it’s fun to imagine how it might be changed to be a bit more timeless in the future, however it does create an interesting snapshot of Christmas 2020. Manual Cinema’s ‘Christmas Carol’ is a bold new take on a classic, retold as a heartfelt animated Christmas card.
Through December 20th. manualcinema.com/christmascarol/
