By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review
Playwright Paula Vogel set out to write the great American equivalent to Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
You may judge for yourself.
The result, titled “A Civil War Christmas,” plays through Jan. 3 at Diversionary Theatre, featuring an ensemble company of nine-plus, for a little aural boost, the Encore Vocal Ensemble.
In the true sense of the word “ensemble” means “together.” From my vantage point Sunday, Dec. 13, the ears would never have guessed. Although there are some fine singers in this ensemble, they fail to listen to one another and achieve a blend — even when it is as few as two singers — and the musical numbers (carols and music of the times) are many.
Hidden behind a sheer curtain, Encore doesn’t help matters as director Kim Strassburger obviously intended. Despite her efforts and those of music director Tim McKnight at the piano and Kristopher Apple on fiddle, edgy vocalism and belt do not tend to blend.
What makes the experience of “A Civil War Christmas” worthwhile is the ingenious way Vogel weaves together a plethora of story threads that take place on Christmas Eve in 1864, less than four months prior to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (Skyler Sullivan). The president has left wife Mary Todd Lincoln’s Christmas gift at their summer home an hour’s horseback ride away, and sets off to retrieve it, followed by a group of eventual assassins, among them John Wilkes Booth (Adam Cuppy).
Meanwhile, Mary Todd (Annie Hinton) decides to surprise Abe with a Christmas tree, but because of the Civil War raging around them few trees have not succumbed to kindling for army campfires. She succeeds only to have the decorated tree stolen from the presidential residence.
On the other side of the Potomac, a free slave and her young daughter (Tanika Baptiste and Cashae Monya) flee the chaos of battle looking for safety in Washington, D.C. When the mother hides her child on a cart, it is with instructions they meet at Lincoln’s home. The child, who becomes lost, is a symbol for the Christ Child, for whom there is no manger.
In another part of the forest, a young man (Julia Nardi-Loving) has fled his unhappy home to join the army. The lad leaves his faithful horse (Cuppy in one of the play’s best and funniest cameos) in search of fodder and is captured by Union soldiers led by a freed slave captain (Durwood Murray), who nearly executes him.
Other ensemble members are the nimble Brian Bose in numerous roles and the vocally robust Taylor Henderson, who plays Mary Todd’s seamstress and confidante. These are the main stories.
Scenic designer Kristen Flores presents a rustic room set up for a staged reading. The actors carry their scripts. Beth Connelly is costume designer, Curtis Mueller the lighting designer, and Blair Nelson the sound designer. Most character changes are effected by the addition of a cap or shawl.
Vogel piles on many stories and threads, including poet Walt Whitman’s visit to a dying Jewish soldier. Though the onlooker is hard pressed to keep everything and everyone straight, the denouement(s) are heartfelt and rewarding. One returns home believing that in many ways Vogel achieved her purpose despite the not-quite-cooked musical elements here and the fact that even at two hours the piece seems weighed down by its own fascinating complexity.
