About This Show
Inspecting Carol, by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Company, is based upon the original company’s own theatrical experiences as material, while the title and main concept was taken from Russian author Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 one act play, The Inspector General, in which a dim-witted clerk is mistaken for a visiting government authority.
The plot revolves around a rehearsal for the Soapbox Playhouse’s annual fundraising production of A Christmas Carol, a show the equity company has performed so frequently that it allows only four days for rehearsal. Unfortunately, it also has a new cast member who needs a lot more rehearsal time, a not-so-tiny Tiny Tim who has grown substantially since last year’s production, and plummeting finances, to name just a few problems. The group learns that a government inspector from the National Endowment for the Arts is about to make a surprise visit to assess the theater’s eligibility for funding. After four long days of counterproductive rehearsals, everything that can go wrong does. Cast members are leaving town, actors are forgetting their lines onstage, and sound cues are appearing from nowhere…even the set self-destructs. The antics continue as the actors rush around in an effort to salvage their floundering production and impress the inspector despite it all. Inspecting Carol is a hysterical spoof filled with wonderful comic characters, mad-cap antics, sight gags and tongue-in-cheek humor. Marlon Barden directs.
No matinee on 11/7.
