The Chimes: A Goblin Story
Written by Charles Dickens
Adapted by Nick Sandys’
at Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln (map)
thru Dec 31 | tickets: $20 | more info
Dickens’ holiday tale is far from a classic
Remy Bumppo Theatre presents
The Chimes: A Goblin Story
Review by Keith Glab
According to dramaturg Rebecca Willingham, Charles Dickens was the first great author to give public readings of his works. In that spirit, Nick Sandys, artistic director of Remy Bumppo Theatre, portrays Dickens reading one of his lesser-known holiday plays in this adaptation of The Chimes: A Goblin Story.
As in A Christmas Carol, a character is changed by supernatural forces. This time, working class father Toby “Trotty” Veck buys into newspaper propaganda that lower class individuals are wicked by nature. A New Years Eve visit by the haughty Alderman Cute exacerbates these feelings to the point that Trotty isn’t certain that his daughter Meg and her sweetheart Richard even have the right to marry as lower class people.
That night, church bells beckon to Trotty, who ascends to the bellchamber, where these anthropomorphic chimes decry his defeatist attitude. The spirits of the chimes show Trotty’s visions of the future where his family and friends are miserable. The apparent intention is to elicit Trotty’s sympathy towards an exploited lower class.
It’s easy to see why A Christmas Carol remained the popular work. Rather than an evil man undergoing a change that leads him to treat his fellow man better, The Chimes depicts a rather clueless man whose change in attitude doesn’t figure to greatly affect the visions of a bleak future he is shown. This lack of clarity and uninspired characters make this piece of social propaganda far less interesting and effective than the tremendously popular story it resembles.
Sandys does everything in his power to make the story entertaining. He brings a tremendous energy to the role and portrays nearly a dozen distinct larger-than-life characters as well as a more naturalistic Dickens. He’s even able to give a metallic tang to his personification of the chimes. Despite this being a concert reading, Sandys gives the characters different mannerisms in addition to altered voices. His Alderman Cute is particularly memorable, and Cute’s speech about how tripe is extravagant and wasteful provides the biggest laughs of the evening.
But Sandys’ impressive efforts can’t save this one. I often found myself losing focus, as the material just wasn’t engaging. The performance runs 10 minutes over the advertised hour-and-a-half length, which is too long for a concert reading even if the material is strong. A more intimate staging might have helped sweep the audience into the story, but Sandys is plopped onto the middle of the spacious set of You Never Can Tell due to the limited run of The Chimes. The occasional sound cues, which should be a welcome enhancement to the monotony of one man talking for 100 minutes, instead aren’t timed well and feel awkward.
If you are a huge fan of Nick Sandys and/or Charles Dickens – and there are good reasons to be both – you might find enough enjoyable moments in The Chimes to make it worthwhile. The typical theatre-goer, however, will want to look elsewhere for their holiday entertainment.
Rating: ★★
The Chimes continues through December 31st at Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln (map). Tickets are $20, and are available by phone (773-404-7336) or online through Tix.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at RemyBumppo.com. (Running time: 100 minutes, no intermission)
artists
cast
Nick Sandys (Charles Dickens)
behind the scenes
Nick Sandys (adaptor, artistic director); Amy M. Bertacini (stage manager); Nick Gajary (sound design); Rebecca Willingham (asst. director, dramaturg); Amanda Sager (sound board operator); Bekah Frient (wardrobe)
12-1231