The Shadow
CLIFTON FORGE — On Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m., the 1940s radio-style adaptation of Frank Capra’s film classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a guaranteed holiday winner, will be presented on the stage of the Historic Masonic Theatre.
The four-member company masterfully conquers multiple characters and sound effects while saving their radio station from a winter blizzard’s doom.
The play is a heartwarming, uplifting gift for audiences.
The iconic story of George Bailey, who finds meaning in life during a fiscal crisis, was re-formulated from its original film version into a radio play, complete with droll and hilarious sound effects. “It’s A Wonderful Life” is a stage adaptation presented as a 1940’s radio show, as adapted by Joe Landry.
The story focuses on Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and who faces a bank crisis not of his making. He falls apart and contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve.
This brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community would be had he never been born. But there is also a frame story. The actors are merely last minute substitutes who are caught in a snowstorm at the radio station.
When the regular actors can’t get to the studio, stagehands and administrators are forced to improvise and play all the parts themselves, without rehearsal, in order to keep the station from closing down. So the actors are improvising both their roles and sound effects designed to create the ambiance of multiple places in the fictional town of Bedford Falls.
The four actors are extremely talented and they all rise to the occasion beautifully, each playing multiple roles, cast and crew, switching easily from one sentence in one voice to another sentence in another voice, which we can observe because we are privy to the behind-the-scene view.
An actor plays George, and then his father, and then, and then … another actor plays a man, a woman, and later a tiny tot. There are at least 30 characters.
There is an antic quality to the production as the characters litter the stage with pages of the scripts while they race back to their equipment to chomp on celery, bang a mock door or scrape a metal rod.
A wonderful throwback to a time-gone-by, perfect for all ages, tickets may be purchased online at www.historicmasonictheatre.com, at the box office by calling (540) 862-5655, or the evening of the performance. Tickets range from $13 to $30. For more information about the holiday events at the Historic Masonic Theatre, visit the theatre website and/or Facebook page.
