A video rebroadcast of “Bah Hoonchbach – A Very Odd Christmas Carol” at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 21, will be presented as an online streaming event hosted by Johnson Hall. Submitted photo
GARDINER — A video rebroadcast of “Bah Hoonchbach – A Very Odd Christmas Carol” at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 21, will be presented as an online streaming event hosted by Johnson Hall. Prior to Mike Miclon becoming the executive/artistic director for Johnson Hall, he ran The Oddfellow Theater, a small theater in the woods of Buckfield.
Miclon and his group built a reputation for hilarious improvised performances. This broadcast of their comedic version of “A Christmas Carol ” was one of the most popular shows at the Oddfellow and was sold out every show for seven seasons.
“Bah Hoonchbach” features Moto Hoonchbach (AKA Mike Miclon), Fritz Grobe, Jason Tardy, Casey Turner, George Dunn and more in the annual comedic retelling of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Every show was different and every year had new surprises. The Oddfellow Theater’s version of “A Christmas Carol” mixes the basics of Dickens’ story with comedic improvisation, audience participation, and just the right touch of sweetness to make for the perfect holiday performance.
The show is great for all ages, but if rated it would most likely be considered PG. The show was filmed in standard definition, so the quality is not HD, but it is still watchable.
This review was written by Paul Kuritz, director of Theater at Bates College: “If Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion and Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company ever sired a child, it could very well be The Oddfellow Theater of Buckfield, Maine.”
“Born in 1996 through the efforts of Kim and Mike Miclon, the company has been presenting a variety of ‘theatricals,’ their latest being Bah Hoonchbach! A Very Odd Christmas Carol. Like Kiellor’s menagerie, Miclon’s includes audience participation and interaction (Bob Cratchit’s Christmas dinner allowed each of his 156 children named “Bob” one piece of popcorn apiece), and references to the locals, especially Virgil Tilton (whose freezer specials at next door’s Tilton’s Market sustained me and mine while I lived in Oxford County). Like Ludlam, the performance style deliberately and spontaneously breaks apart to reveal the artificiality of the whole thing. And like Keillor and Ludlam, the burlesque humor makes the pathos all the more irresistible. This was quite simply the most entertaining and moving ‘Christmas Carol’ I have ever seen on stage. (And my wife and son agree.) In fact, I haven’t seen anything as funny and moving as Miclon’s Dickens classic since I saw Charles Ludlam’s ‘Camille’ in New York. Miclon’s bravura depends on his amazing supporting cast, especially the sublimely understated Fritz Grobe.
The late great Benny Reehl’s legacy of the Buckfield Leather and Lather Show (the most influential of all of the 1970s New Vaudeville enterprises) lives on and grows in this company, as well as with people like Robin Mello, telling her stories in Wisconsin. (Benny and his wife, Denise, each directed plays for me at Bates College.) Their skills are evident on the Oddfellow stage; their kindness is evident in the Buckfield theater lobby as the cast greets the patrons as they exit the theater. (A word about the patrons: the audience is made up of real Americans: working-class moms and dads, kids of all ages, oldsters, too, all of whom delight in this company.)
By Paul Kuritz, On Theater & Film
The video will be broadcast to all who have the unique ticket link and password associated with the purchase email address. Each unique link and password will be sent out through email by 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 21, to ticket holders. The link will be sent to the email associated with the ticket purchase. The link will be live from 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 21, through Christmas Eve and can be watched anytime during that time. Each ticket purchased covers a household.
For more information, contact info@johnsonhall.org.
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