If you go
* What: “Trials, Tribulations and Christmas Decorations.”* When: 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, Saturday, Dec. 3, Thursday, Dec. 8, and Dec. 9-10; 1:30 p.m. Dec. 11.* Where: Oak Street Center, First-Centenary United Methodist Church, 433 Oak St.* Admission: $25 (dinner and play).* Phone: 1-800-838-3006 (option 1).* Website: www.brownpapertickets.com (type in Oak Street Playhouse).
Christmas-season playgoers may be familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim but may not be able to relate in the 21st century to the 19th-century curmudgeon, his penniless clerk and the clerk's hopeless, crippled child.
John Billings, on the other hand, they might recognize.
Billings is the central character in the Scrooge-like comedy "Trials, Tribulations and Christmas Decorations," which opens Friday, Dec. 2, in the Flo Summitt Theater at Oak Street Playhouse in First-Centenary United Methodist Church.
The production is part of the playhouse's annual holiday dinner-theater presentation, which runs through Dec. 11.
"The name is catchy," director Jerry Draper says. "That's what first caught my eye."
But don't go expecting a modern retelling of the Dickens story. That's not what's afoot.
"So many families experience issues [around] the holidays - relationships, getting along with each other," he says. "[The play is] relatable - the trials and tribulations at Christmas. It's not a Norman Rockwell Christmas."
In the yarn, by playwright Matthew Garlin, the crotchety Billings is dealing with the death of his wife, a married daughter whose husband he's not too sure about and his own general funk. The merry Christmas seasons of his past seem like a distant memory.
His daughter, Kim, though, has some thoughts about how that might be remedied.
"It's a comedy but a Scrooge story," Draper says. "He's lost the spirit of Christmas, but his family and friends bring him around to the spirit of [the holiday]."
The director says he's urged his nine-member cast to bloom where they're planted.
"I've been encouraging the actors to take what they know about their character and go over the top - with both funny stuff and serious stuff," Draper says. For instance, he said, one scene may be "touching in the midst of comedy." In another, Draper says, William Brooks, who plays Billings' son-in-law, has added small bits of "physical humor that were not part of the play."
So, while there are no dragging chains, figgy pudding or mourners choosing from among a dead man's belongings, the production is one of those shows, according to the director, where attendees should "find characters or situations to relate to."
All tickets to the dinner theater must be made by reservation. No tickets will be sold at the door.