‘Folly’ puts new twist on Dickens Well-rounded cast delivers in Machias author’s work

It was an evening of new beginnings at the premiere of Bangor Community Theatre’s musical “Jacob’s Folly” on Friday at the Maine Center for the Arts.

Written by Machias author and lyricist John Dennis with music composed by John Haskell, the musical explores the consequences of greed, injustice and sin – but in the end provides hope for redemption.

The story focuses on the fate of Jacob Marley, the partner and ghostly intercessor for Ebeneezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol.”

Marley (Steve Gormley) arrives in purgatory, where his eternal destiny – receiving grace or condemnation – will be determined.

The Purgatorium Bar, with its neon cocktails sign and bartender Barry (Luke Hedger), who watches the action on Earth on his TV (terrestrial viewer), is the setting where the souls in limbo still try to figure out what really matters in life.

Marley discovers that Belle (Bridget Larson), whom he always loved, has received grace but still waits in purgatory for her long-lost love, Scrooge (Jon Greenman). It is revealed that Marley led Scrooge into a life of the ruthless pursuit of wealth in order to keep him from marrying Belle. Marley’s mission to warn Scrooge of the wrath to come is at first yet another attempt to keep Belle from Scrooge. That is, until he repents of his ways, receives grace, announces that he must make amends for his deeds by searching hell for the souls he has wronged and begs their forgiveness.

Gormley played Marley with confidence and swagger, which lent flair to his solo performances. As Marley’s soul was transformed, he delivered some of the production’s more memorable lines about the plight of the poor and the power of those more fortunate to come to their aid.

The misfortunes of the poor were demonstrated effectively in the action on Earth, which follows the travails of a gang of street boys and the Cratchit family, including Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit (Jason Wilkes), and the sickly Tiny Tim (John Lanham).

Swede (Scott Johnson), the leader of the street boys, shows kindness even amid his crimes by giving a beaten man a coat and preventing Martha Cratchit from being robbed. He detests himself for his life of crime and drowns himself in a river, but his redemption in purgatory provides hope.

Tim, as he is in the Dickens classic, brimmed with joy despite his physical limitations. John Lanham, a 12-year-old from Bangor, captured Tim’s heartwarming innocence, particularly during the “Flower Shop Dream Sequence,” when he makes a brief visit to purgatory.

Barry’s deadpan one-liners and Stoff (Ben Layman) provided much-needed comic relief.

Stoff arrives in purgatory after drowning in a bathtub while cavorting with a woman who is engaged to Parson Brown. Layman’s remorseful delivery of the first lines of “She Took My Breath Away” (I loved a fat lady, sad to say/Who liked to do it in the tub;/I drowned of her affection, there,/ While we were playing rub-a-dub-dub) drew gales of laughter from the audience.

The show’s finale, “Here I Stand in Grace,” conveyed the joy of redemption, without glossing over the responsibility of men for their sins and their need to seek forgiveness for “a chance to start again.”