Catherine Castellanos and Cast Photo by Kevin Berne

Because I had had long-standing travel plans that kept me from attending the actual opening night, I saw American Conservatory Theater's production of A Whynot Christmas Carol on an ordinary Tuesday night and was rather shocked to find the Toni Rembe Theatre filled to perhaps 20% capacity. That should have been a red flag, but ever the optimist, I took my seat and took in the set (designed by David Zinn) that depicted what appeared to be a school gymnasium or multi-purpose room packed with props, a few risers, and a ghost light positioned downstage center.

After an opening moment with a young girl who picks up a book that is then hit with a focused spotlight as she reads a few pages and then is surprised when its pages begin to blow away (in a rather lovely effect), the stage is filled with a troupe of local actors who circle and cross almost haphazardly in a way that seemed to have little to nothing to do with what followed over the next two hours.

Finally, the director of the show-within-the-play–the little town of Whynot's production of Dickens' A Christmas Carol–gets her cast started on a read-through during their tech rehearsal. Stacy Ross, one of the Bay Area's best actors, plays the director with great skill, adopting the passionate but occasionally testy attitude of a theatre artist working hard to help her cast more deeply understand the text–and subtext–of the play. She wants them not to "sentimentalize the story" in ways that might mask "what it's really about."

A fine goal, but one that gets lost in the muddle that is Lucas's play. As we jump from scene to scene, with the cast predictably wanting more lines or to change lines, and having trouble finding their way, I found myself identifying with their confusion. At first the show seems like a low-budget amateur production, which makes sense. But about 30 minutes in, this small town theatre group suddenly seems to have access to a much higher budget for sets and lighting, with enormous flats and full-size street lamps being lowered from the fly space. Likewise, the cast, who had previously been wearing street clothes are now attired in opulent, highly detailed Dickensian garb: frock coats and hoop skirts in jewel tones.

Despite the visual feast this offers, the cast (who mostly do excellent work) stumble along with this mess of a play. The characters they attempt to inhabit are entirely one-dimensional, with Lucas giving us little to no reason to care about any of them. Phil is the actor playing Scrooge, and Dan Hiatt is wonderfully curmudgeonly both as Dickens' anti-hero saved from hubris and greed and as Phil, a prototypically grumpy old man.

As Lucas stated in an essay in the program, he believes Scrooge "expects perfect loyalty though he is loyal to no one but himself." As Craig Ferguson used to say on his late night talk show, "sound like anyone?" Clearly, Lucas wanted his play to highlight the evils of greed and selfishness, but the whole thing is so jumbled and confusing that this worthwhile goal sputters along like a backfiring jalopy.

Then there are some odd references to Scrooge perhaps being Jewish (a theory some critics have indeed espoused), including when, at one point, Phil asks Aubrei (the director and Phil's wife) about the action on Christmas Eve, asking one of questions posed on Passover: "Why is this night different?," which got some in the audience tittering. Then there's a completely out of left field hip-hop dance break.

Last year's production of A Christmas Carol by ACT–a previously annual tradition of theirs–was sparkling and joyous and thrilling. Let's hope ACT has no plans to make this a new tradition. When the residents of Whynot are asked why the town is so named, they invariably answer "why not?" If you asked me if you should part with your dollars for a ticket to A Whynot Christmas Carol, I'd answer more briefly: why?

A Whynot Christmas Carol runs through December 24, 2024, at American Conservatory Theater, Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco CA. Performances are Tuesdays-Fridays at 7:00pm, Saturdays at 1:00pm and 7:30pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm. For tickets (ranging from $25-$148) and information, please visit www.act-sf.org.