Best of Times, Worst of Times...for Children!

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Location: Radcliffe Yard

DATES: May 5 at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., May 6 at 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., and May 7 at 2 p.m.

DIRECTOR: Mary E. Birnbaum ’07 and Jess R. Burkle ’08



Since when was the guillotine considered funny? For a while in the 19th century, it seems.

“It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey, it imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close,” writes Charles Dickens in his 1859 novel, “A Tale of Two Cities.”

Mary E. Birnbaum ’07 and Jess R. Burkle ’06 are laughing right along with Dickens. Together they are directing a delightfully funny adaptation of “A Tale of Two Cities” for the Sunken Garden Children’s Theater (of which they are also co-presidents)—a troupe that annually performs in Radcliffe Yard’s Sunken Garden during Arts First, adapted from a piece of classical literature for children. This year marks their 10th anniversary.

You might be wondering how decapitation could possibly be a suitable theme for children’s theater. Birnbaum, Burkle, and the author of the adaptation, Adam V. Kline ’02, were perfectly aware of this problem and were up for the challenge.

Their adaptation features a long-locked and earnest Charles Darnay (Liam R. Martin ’06) whose aristocratic background is brought under the scrutiny of the revolutionary Mr. and Mrs. Defarge (Joshua C. Phillips ’07 and Alison H. Rich ’09). As punishment, his tresses are condemned to meet with the “National Razor” of a vicious and snipper-happy barber, Mr. Guillotine (Burkle).

The show is often thrown together at the last minute by a highly skilled group of actors, Burkle says. “We don’t want it to cook too long. It’s about relying on the instincts of being a ham. Or an idiot….Accents are funny. Falling down is funny. We want to be as big as we can without scaring the children.”

Indeed, the actors seem to enjoy the production as much as the audience. “The great thing is that [the production] makes classic stories much more fun for everyone—both the people in it and the people watching it,” says Johanna S. Karlin ’05, former president of Sunken Garden Children’s Theater.

Burkle describes Sunken Garden Children’s Theater as “the most rewarding theater experience I’ve had.” The evolution of the group, he says, has been enhanced by actors who “started to realize how fun it was to have kids rather than jaded Cambridge intellectuals” in the audience.

And it seems “A Tale of Two Cities” might have enough goofy appeal to turn a jaded Cambridge intellectual into a sated Cambridge intellectual—and a giggling one at that.