Audience asked to do too much

Tom Mula’s play about Jacob Marley, one of the secondary figures in “A Christmas Carol,” began life as a book and was later adapted for radio.

Those roots are evident in this stage version at the Actor’s Repertory Theatre, and not always in a good way.

Four actors play Marley, Scrooge, Record Keeper and Bogle (a mischievous spirit), yet half the time they don’t actually “play” those characters.

Instead, they narrate their characters. They refer to themselves in the third person, as if they were the authors of the story, not the participants.

This is only one of several problems with Mula’s script. The characters are burdened with delivering a huge amount of exposition, in which they tell the audience what is happening, instead of showing us.

There are no sets to speak of and little in the way of props (even a writing pen is mimed). The actors wear khakis and blazers and never change costumes, which is especially noticeable when we are supposed to imagine Marley as a horrible-looking ghost.

There is nothing wrong with asking audience members to use their imaginations. Yet this play is so relentless in asking us to imagine all kinds of metaphysical oddities – racing through the underworld, traveling through time, stumbling upon planets of lost souls – that my imagination, for one, couldn’t keep up.

By the end of the play, I was completely baffled about the complicated metaphysics involved in the redemption of Marley. I was pleased, and even a little moved, that he was redeemed. I was just confused about how he pulled it off.

There are some pleasures to be had in this production. It is a virtuoso acting workshop, led by Patrick Treadway as Marley. Treadway takes Marley from his pinched days at the countinghouse through his death and transformation into a saver of lost souls (Scrooge’s).

David Seitz as Scrooge, Carolyn Crabtree as Bogle and Ron Ford as Record Keeper all demonstrate tremendous range and technique as they swoop through a dizzying range of emotions and situations. Crabtree, for one, made us believe she was the size of a little spot of light.

Yet when I say “acting workshop,” that is not entirely a good thing, either. The acting, under the direction of Michael Weaver, is bold, showy and very, for lack of a better word, actorly. You never forget for a second that you are watching people play-acting. Do not look for naturalism or subtlety.

Mula’s script also has its charms. The central idea is terrific: Mula shows us how Marley became the hero of “A Christmas Carol,” in the sense that Marley saves Scrooge from his fate as a lonely and damned soul.

The story has elements of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and other Christmas redemption stories in that it forces us to look at the meaning of our own lives. It also works as a retelling of the original Dickens story, as well, since Marley has to orchestrate the visit to Scrooge of the three ghosts.

Yet, in the end, this play didn’t work for me. I couldn’t get over Mula’s wordiness and his penchant for pseudo-Victorian cuteness (Bogle refers to Scrooge variously as “Old Pudding,” “Old Crumpet” and “Old Crumb-Pot”).

The play is billed as being family-friendly, but I would have a hard time recommending it for kids. The story is confusing, the stagecraft is minimalist and the exposition goes on too long.

Hey, I’m a grown-up and I couldn’t figure it out. On the other hand, maybe kids have more limber imaginations than I evidently do.