We have been reviewing performances at the Berkshire Theatre Festival since 1999, publishing them on our sister site NewBerkshire.com and will be reposting them here eventually after reconfiguring that site.

Dec. 14, 2007 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall.

One of the joys of this Christmas season is that the Berkshire Theatre Festival’s delightful production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is back again in the Unicorn Theatre where it will be running, in numerous matinees and early evening performances, until December 30.

(Photos by Ryan Chittaphong)

The Unicorn stage on which Victorian England has been lovingly created by scenic designer Carl Sprague is awash with 27 actors, ages ranging from third-grader Helen Crescentini, as a young Crachit, to adults such as leading actor Eric Hill as a Scrooge who looks a hundred in his first gloomy appearances but is, by the end, capering and jolly.

Hill, who also co-directed the production, along with E. Gary Simons III, has woven the 90 minute story into an ever-flowing, ever-evolving, ever-loving holiday gift for the Berkshires.

The production is rife with music, beginning with the London streets crowded with carolers while Scrooge looms in distain high above them. The rapid-fire, finely coordinated many scene changes are accompanied by music and at times by individual songs, those of the young children in the cast being especially effective.

A “Silent Night” duo by two beautiful wistful young girls in harmony was lovely. Sorting out their names from the program eluded me, but the violinist high on her balcony was Jahana Stanton, a 7th grader, and one of a family of four talented youngsters present in the production.

Costumer Jessica Risser-Milne has done a magnificent job in recreating the period down to the very tips of the tiny boots worn by the children. The top hats, the women’s gowns, and of course the fantasy attire of the three Christmas ghosts—all stepping right off an old Christmas card.

Central to the play and the production is Scrooge. Hill is, as one might expect, wonderful in the role—from curmudgeon to philanthropist his face and gait registering subtle transition.

In such a large cast one cannot mention and praise all who deserve it. Moments that stood out for this reviewer were, at times, tiny ones.

When Hallie Novak and Rider Stanton stood perfectly still in the embrace of the second ghost (Anthony Mark Stockard ), representing Want and Ignorance, not moving, just there in a quiet hopelessness, while the Spirit taunted Scrooge with his own words, “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?” – Dickens’s dark-side message of the play struck right at the heart.

All three ghost scenes (plus Matthew Crider’s Marley appearance) are handled brilliantly, from the light airy time/spacer traveler (Ramona L. Alexander), to the silent stilted black figure of Christmas future (Travis G. Daly). Their eerie aspects should tend to fascinate but not scare children at the matinee.

And children will love, as we do, Tiny Tim (Nate Stump) who at the play’s end gives us Dickens’s message, God bless us, Every One!

Go and be blest. Merry Christmas!

• Berkshire Theatre Festival
• 6 East St. St.
• Stockbridge,MA 01262
• 413-298-5576
• berkshiretheatre.org
• Berkshires venues- driving directions

August 15, 2002 performance reviewed by Pat Nichols

A huge brick wall looms over the opening of For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again at The Williamstown Theatre Festival Mini Festival. Written by Canadian Playwright Michel Tremblay as a tribute to his mother who defined his eventual journey as a playwright, the play describes the effect of a loving mother on her son’s future.

Olympia Dukakis as Nana, whose hyperbole during conversations with her son ranges from almost true to over the top fabrication, marked his progression into adulthood. The play follows the two from the time he is ten until he is 20. At first he sits in his chair with his feet tucked up under him, a child caught in a transgression. As a thirteen year old he half lays in the chair, as a twenty year old he begins in earnest to separate from her but she is never far away.

A simple woman raising her family, cooking big Saturday night dinners for relatives who don’t appreciate them and catering to her husband’s needs, she represents a universality of women, who acted and thought behind the scenes.

The first scene centers on a policeman coming into her home and her immediate reaction to his presence is that it is an indication that someone died. She imagines the corpse, covered so she only sees one hand. She wonders how she can identify who it is.

Over the top, she describes her emotions, leaving her washing to speak with the officer and finding out her ten year old threw a piece of ice under a the wheel of a car. “Everyone was doing it,” only sends her on another verbal crusade.

Years later, the two discuss books and why she likes them and the son finds inconsistencies and flaws. Mothers know everything she claims in her own defense of her love of certain books. Dukakis does an awesome job of recreating Tremblay’s mother. She is on stage almost every minute voicing her take on family, on life, and what she believes in, with humor and determination.

Marco Barricelli grows in the role from the boyish ten year old to the 20 year old assimilating what his mother has reiterated over and over in their conversations. Nana admits she grows melodramatic but can’t help the irresistible flow of words that stream out of her mouth and consciousness.

As she grows ill near the end, she wonders how plays happen, where they come from, unaware she has created the nexus of a play by simply living her life. Nana wonders about an actress she admires but questions ‘does that actress imagine her audience out there watching her? Do they have an interest in that person—Nana? Do we exist for them? What is their connection? What is real?

She laments her son isn’t settled yet and blames herself. ”I let you dream too much, let you read books.” He counters “Everything I have I got from you, it is a strength.” Tremblay wanted to recreate his mother’s life, wanted a second chance to be with her again. The play enables the rest of us to share his good fortune in a warm and humorous way.

More info: 2013 Williamstown Theatre Festival schedule.