Review: Renegade Theater Company’s ‘Fezziwig’s Feast’
December 11, 2010
By Christa Lawler
Duluth News Tribune
In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Mr. Fezziwig is a jolly old gent in a Welsh wig, and his wife is one “vast substantial smile.”
They are the consummate hosts of an annual dinner party at the warehouse where a pre-bah humbug Ebenezer Scrooge is one of two apprentices. On Christmas Eve, Fezziwig’s employees shut down the shop, and a parade of guests file in for eating, drinking and dancing.
Renegade Theater Company’s foray into dinner theater uses this feast as the backdrop for the classic holiday tale in the entertainment space at Clyde Iron Works. You play the role of a dinner guest. Actors in top hats or bonnets, in capes and floor-length dresses, mingle and chat, and steal nibbles from your bread basket.
Mr. Fezziwig, played by the always jolly Jody Kujawa, sets the scene: There will be food. And then the Fezziwig family and their staff will act out a story written by Mr. Fezziwig’s friend, a poor young writer named Charles Dickens, who unfortunately couldn’t make the soiree.
“Fezziwig’s Feast” is an adaptation created by the Actors Theater of Minnesota, a Twin Cities-based group that landed on Duluth stages at least twice in the early 2000s.
The best moments of this show, which runs just more than two hours, are the ghoulish introductions to the ghosts: the shimmery and ethereal Past (Jenna Kase), the hearty and hippie-like Present wearing a wreath-sized head ornament (Zachary Stofer), and the looming and reaper-ish Future with his long, twiggy bone hands.
The best of the best of this otherworldly cast is Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s former partner who has been “dead as a door nail” for seven years. He comes to Scrooge accessorized in chains to warn him that he can change his dour fate. Blue and purple lights and a manipulated monster growl gave Stofer something that could easily double as a Halloween-themed cult classic. Kudos to director Anika Thompson, who took advantage of Clyde’s upper level as a stage for moaning and groaning ghost-like figures. It was a scene from a Marilyn Manson video.
Paul Waterman, as both Fezziwig’s accountant and Scrooge, is a terrific grouch in his opening scenes at the office with Bob Cratchit. And he fades perfectly into the backdrop while on his tour with the ghosts while subtly maintaining his game face. As he watches a younger version of himself dancing with a woman at a Fezziwig’s Feast of the past, he mimes his own dance in synch with young Scrooge.
Opening night included some timing issues between on-stage action and food service that I expect will get worked out within a few runs. There also was a varying level of commitment to character when the actors milled during the food breaks and before the show.
If Renegade is looking to build its fan base with something different than their traditional blue holiday comedy, they’ve done it. The audience of about 60 people was an eclectic mix.
Of the five shows that opened this weekend, this is the biggest ticket price at $49.95. But you won’t get the English feast at those other shows: potato and leek soup with smoked salmon crème fraiche; hearth-cooked turkey over field greens with poached pear, raisins, candied walnuts and roasted acorn squash vinaigrette; pork tenderloin with apple butter sauce; ginger mashed sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts; wood-fired peasant bread with whipped honey butter; and bread pudding with crème anglaise and brandy caramel sauce.
This review ran in the December 4, 2010, edition of the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune.
