Improv fun with What the Dickens
What would happen if Ebenezer Scrooge were not miserly but instead always looking at his mobile phone? What if rather than sadness that he needed crutches, Tiny Tim’s family mourned his inability to read an instruction manual? Those are some of the audience suggestions received by the cast of What The Dickens, an improv version of A Christmas Carol at Millspace in Newmarket on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14.
Seacoast-based Stranger Than Fiction, an improv group now in its 20th year, uses the Charles Dickens holiday classic as a template for comedy. The show is always different. One night, the Ghost of Christmas Past might have a Mickey Mouse voice; on another he could be Darth Vader. Some touches are written down by patrons as they enter the theatre; others are shouted out during the play.
The show began in 2022, said STF cast member and Marketing Director Dan Schiffmacher in a recent phone interview, with a run at the New Hampshire Theatre Project in Portsmouth’s West End. Last year, STF partnered with Players’ Ring Theatre and did the show there, along with performances in Newmarket and Sanford, Maine.
“We wanted to do something for the holidays, something a little bit different, and one of our members came up with the idea,” he said. “We started to craft [how] to mix what people know about the story and also have elements of improv…. We didn’t want to pre-plan too much, because we still wanted to have that like spontaneity and fun to it.”
Thus the principles of Dickens’ tale remain — a boss, an employee, his family and some ghosts — but the elements change from night to night. For this year’s opener at Portsmouth’s Players’ Ring Theatre, Scrooge’s bad habit was stealing drinks at the pub he owned, where Cratchit tended bar, and one of the ghosts was Ronald Reagan. Other times, the ghosts spoke like Mickey Mouse or Scooby-Doo.
Audience “asks” are often challenging, Schiffmacher noted. When Scrooge & Marley became a Christmas tree company, the ghost character had to come up with a way to transport Scrooge from realm to realm. The solution was to make him climb into the twining machine to be spun ahead.
Sometimes the mundane is quite funny. “When Darth Vader was the Ghost of Christmas Future, he cleared the scenes by force-choking us all off the stage,” Schiffmacher said. “Our director was on the lights, and he turned everything red. It’s a lot of fun when we’re all on the same page and can do that.”
The process of getting audience input is itself entertaining. When last year’s Scrooge character asked for a 1980s movie actor suggestion, response began flying at him immediately, including Bruce Springsteen, as if his videos counted, along with Sean Connery and John Cusack. He ultimately chose Rodney Dangerfield and groused about getting no respect while talking to Marley’s ghost.
Between an animated crowd and the venerable improv group always looking to top itself, each show presents many new opportunities for hilarity. “We’re always trying to find different ways to switch things up, make them a little more fresh,” Schiffmacher said. “Like we’re all different characters — the person who plays Scrooge in the first show won’t play him in the second show. We all shuffle around … everyone has their own approach.”
Schiffmacher joined Stranger Than Fiction in early 2022, after moving to New Hampshire from Chicago. He has more than a decade of improv experience. He noted that anyone with an itch to try improv can take one of the classes the troupe offers.
“There’s a 101 Intro to Improv that starts in January,” he said. “We’re working on the dates; people can find out more on our website.”
What the Dickens
When: Friday, Dec. 13, and Saturday, Dec. 14, 8 p.m.
Where: Millspace, 55 Main St., Newmarket
Tickets: $12 at portsmouthnhtickets.com
Featured image: Courtesy photo.
