By Bart Greenberg***The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre‘s (CAMT) production of A Christmas Carol, Oy! Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Ramadan at Theater for the New City…well, oy, indeed. And if the title 
seems cumbersome, it’s nothing compared to this wrong-headed presentation. Did you happen to know that after his transformation, Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit have a fifteen-minute discussion on redecorating the office? But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
This production is an adaptation and reinvention by Vít Hořejš, the founder of CAMT. It incorporates a blend of English, Jewish, African, American and Czech winter rituals, customs and holiday songs, and features over three dozen marionettes, as well as live vocal accompaniment from Katarina Vizina and Valois Mickens in multiple languages, including Czech, English, Hebrew, Slovak, Spanish, and Swahili. And it all takes place on a very crowded stage.
I’m not sure
what the multicolor toad stools were doing there—they seemed to be left over from a forgotten production of Alice in Wonderland—nor the glittery top hat that escaped from A Chorus Line. The central puppet stage was very small, as were the majority of the marionettes, which were barely discernible beyond the third row. There were a few exceptions: a very large devil character was repurposed as The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which made no Dickensian sense, nor did the fact that this traditionally silent character talked. A lot. About two thirds of the way through the performance, the miniature stage completely fell apart; whether this was poor construction or deep symbolism was hard to tell.
Hořejš is also credited as director, puppeteer and actor, unfortunately failing at most of these tasks: direction was sloppy and awkward and his acting was almost invisible—every character had the 
same flat delivery. Coupled with the lack of visible clarity of the puppet stage, it was often difficult to tell which marionette was speaking. There was simply no narrative drive nor emotional impact. Mickens and Vizina sang well and also showed a certain flair for comedy as they became progressively drunker during the course of the show.
Children are the major target for this holiday show, yet one little boy was so delighted with the phrase “dead as a doornail,” he kept giggling and repeating it. And as the program pressed on, there was a progression of restless and sleeping children being carried out of the theater. Ultimately this adapted and re-imagined show was boring…A Christmas Carol told one too many times.
A Christmas Carol, Oy! Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Ramadan runs through January 11, 2026 at the Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, New York City. Tickets can be purchased at the theater or via ci.ovationtix.com.
Photos by Jonathan Slaff
