Ralphie’s Story

Sanford Maine Stage don’t quite shoot their eye out

By Katherine Joyce

A Christmas Carol shows at Sanford Maine Stage, in Springvale, through Dec. 9. Call (207) 324-9691.

CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT: Stephen Wall and Leo Lunser in Sanford Maine Stage’s A Christmas Story.

Everyone has seen the movie A Christmas Story, right? It’s 1938 and little Ralphie has his heart set on getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, but everyone thinks he’ll shoot his eye out. This movie is a Christmas classic. Everybody loves it.

The play at Sanford Maine Stage is the same story, with all of the same classic scenes. Ralphie’s little brother Randy all bundled up to go to school, Ralphie’s friend Flick sticking his tongue to the flagpole. The play, like the movie, is narrated by a grown-up Ralphie, looking back on a favorite Christmas of his childhood.

The Narrator, played by Leo Lunser, begins the story. Ralphie is waiting for his Annie Decoder Ring to come in the mail. It’s almost Christmas, and he and his classmates are trying to decide what to get their family members for Christmas. More importantly, they are trying to figure out how to get what they want for Christmas. All Ralphie wants in a genuine Red Ryder BB gun.

Now, any play with children is bound to have its difficulties. Some children are dying for the spotlight, others get very shy on stage. Children are more prone to getting distracted, forgetting their cues, ending up on stage when they aren’t supposed to be there. This show is no exception. Stephen Wall, who plays Ralphie, seems very shy, and it is difficult to understand him when he speaks. Brianna McNeil, who played one of Ralphie’s schoolmates, keeps looking at the audience smiling and shrugging. On the other hand, Seth Cadigan, who plays Randy, is funny — he’s cute, he remembers his lines, and it all seems effortless.

Something strange kept happening over the course of the play. Certain kids randomly showed up on stage for some scenes and not for others. Ralphie, who left for school at the same time as Randy, was nowhere to be found when Randy fell in the snow on the way. Schwartz, who was there to triple-dog-dare Flick to stick his tongue to the flagpole, never showed up in the classroom. Flick, who was sometimes in the classroom, was inexplicably absent at other times. At one point, Esther Jane came back on stage, put her jacket on the platform for Santa’s chair, and then left. It was never clear why it was essential for her jacket to be on the platform. Of course, it’s possible that these events were confined to the particular performance I saw.

This play has another inherent obstacle to overcome. Just like in the movie, there is a great deal of narration. In the play, the Narrator is on stage interjecting background information and commentary during the action on stage. What do the actors in the scene do while the Narrator is talking? There are several possible answers to that question. They could freeze, or the lights could go off, or dim, with a spotlight on the Narrator.

In this production, the actors keep “acting” while the Narrator narrates (with one exception, where they froze). Unfortunately, they can’t talk over the Narrator, and they have been given nothing appropriate to do in that dead time. For example: Ralphie’s little brother Randy falls in the snow, and can’t get up because he has so many winter clothes on. Famous scene. As two characters pick him up, the Narrator begins to speak. For one whole minute, maybe two, those two characters are forced to stand there absently brushing snow off of Randy, pretending to have a conversation. Time and time again, actors are forced to continue an action for an unnatural period of time. This leads to distracting and silly facial expressions, fake lip-synched conversations, and other awkward moments.

This production is also faced with another difficulty, which proves to be the fatal blow. The set. Don’t get me wrong, the main portion of the set is great. The house looks just like you’d imagine. And the extra pieces that are brought on for scene changes are also quite innovative. However, the amount of time it took to change the set in between scenes was ridiculous. The set changes took so long, Christmas carolers sometimes came out from behind the wings and sang to keep the audience occupied. This difficulty caused the play to drag on for three hours. By the end of three hours, the actors are tired, the momentum of the story is lagging, and the children in the audience are getting more and more vocal about their restlessness.

If the set changes were simplified and a method created for dealing with dead time during narration, this show would be the wonderful holiday show it is meant to be. The momentum would help keep the children animated and focused. It is a fun play, a crowd-pleaser during the holiday season, and with a few tweaks, this production could deliver the joy and spirit of Christmas, as intended.

Katherine Joyce can be reached at ingliskat@aol.com