INTERVIEW: Merchant’s House ‘Christmas Carol’ is back for in-person storytelling
Photo: John Kevin Jones co-adapted and stars in A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum. Photo courtesy of PR rep / Provided by BBB with permission.
The annual tradition of seeing John Kevin Jones in A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House on the Lower East Side has returned for a set of holiday performances. Last year, the beloved Christmas show went online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and this year, the one-man show is back at the historic venue, courtesy of Summoners Ensemble Theatre and Merchant’s House Museum. For those unable to catch an in-person performance, no worries because streaming from the comforts of one’s home is also available this year.
For Jones, the experience of coming back to live theater has been a welcome one, but at first he needed to get used to having an audience who wore masks for the duration of his 70-minute performance.
“Having them in the room is terrific,” Jones said in a recent phone interview. “The whole energy of the piece is the group that’s watching, and so it is great having them back. It did kind of freak me out. The first time that I performed it was a preview for friends and family, so I’m glad they were people who know me. Maybe they won’t hold it against me. I did fine. The show was great, but it really freaked me out to perform for people wearing masks. I had not taken that into consideration. … It kind of threw me that first time, but I have to say that the next time was far better, far better. It’s sort of like therapy. If you acknowledge the problem, write a sentence about it, generally it tends to take care of itself.”
Remembering the text is not a problem for Jones. He performs an edited version of the story that was once performed by Charles Dickens himself. All of the important scenes and characters are present and accounted for, including Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the parade of ghosts. There is greater emphasis on the scenes that have multiple characters and action, two of Jones’ strong suits as an actor. Also helping him with the storytelling is the historic and atmospheric surroundings of the Merchant’s House Museum.
“The words really do linger in my head,” he said. “It’s really getting the words back in my body again, that takes a little bit more effort, putting all the movement back with it and getting the voices together. It’s interesting, one thing about memorization that I think is really weird, and I only discovered it in my 30s, your muscle memory of your mouth actually is a really strong part of what makes up your memory or speech, at least it is for me. There have been times when I have been careening toward a dead end in my mind that I just do not know where the words are going to take me, and I see the end of the road as far as I know. I have nothing there, and then I take the breath at the end of that road. And all of a sudden all of the lights come out. It’s like, right, my mouth remembered when I didn’t, so sometimes there is that. But for this story in particular it’s so affecting to me anyway. As I tell it, it tends to stick with me, even through the year.”
Delivering this monologue is particularly poignant during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Christmas cheer and end-of-year message of second chances seem readymade for these troublesome times — especially when New York theater is facing show cancellations due to a spike in infections, and the Omicron variant is spreading throughout the world. For Jones, who co-adapted the script with director Rhonda Dodd, the connection between Dickens’ story and the real world is not lost on him.
“When I am saying these words, sometimes it catches me off guard,” the actor said. “There’s one section that jumped out at me while I was performing it. I hadn’t thought about it before then, but he says, ‘It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.’ That really struck me as I read it because here we are at a time of disease and sorrow, and of course there’s nothing more affecting than that. But we have to hang on to the life that we have and the laughter that we can achieve together because that’s what makes this existence so powerful and enjoyable.”
Another powerful moment for Jones is when he considers the Fezziwigs in the story. In the tale, they greet everyone with a “Merry Christmas” and generally like to shake hands and make merry. In previous years, Jones tried to re-create that sentiment, and he would bid good night to each and every theatergoer as they left the Merchant’s House. With COVID-19 still a concern, that practice has changed.
“I would say good night to everybody as they left literally out the door, shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went out and wished him or her a merry Christmas, which is a quote from Dickens in the Fezziwig section,” Jones said. “That’s what the Fezziwigs did, and I thought the Fezziwigs they have such a small little scene, but wow what an effect they have on Scrooge and what an effect they should have on all of us. … So good night to every single one of those people has real strong resonance with me, and not being able to do that it is heart-breaking really. Saying those words, it chokes me up. It really does.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House, performed John Kevin Jones, continues through Jan. 1. In-person and streaming tickets are available. Click here for more information and tickets.
