'A Christmas Story' jumps from the silver screen to the stage in local production

Tickets are still available for five upcoming live theatre performances of timeless holiday classic movie A Christmas Story.

Director Marc Beaudette said there is a musical version of the 1983 film adapted for live performances, but this production staged by Algoma Repertory Theatre is a second non-musical version.

“It is very true to the movie, it follows the plot lines and all kind of lines you will recognize from the movie verbatim,” said Beaudette. “Anybody who has seen the movie will enjoy this show because it’s like seeing the movie live and in person.”

Beaudette also serves as the narrator for the story, which is told through the adult perspective of young Ralphie, whose singular focus through the story is to unwrap a Red Ryder b.b. gun on Christmas morning.

”It’s innocent and wonderful and it’s what every adult does when you sit back and remember your childhood — even the dark times of your childhood, when you look back on them, you kind of gloss them over with good thoughts,” said Beaudette.

The role of Ralphie as a child is played by Riley Korschin, with Riley Forsyth playing his often-crying younger brother Randie, while Amanda Moss plays the mother.

Iconic scenes like the unboxing of the leg lamp, the pink bunny suit will be portrayed on stage, as will the ‘you’ll shoot your eye out’ lines the movie is famous for.

Actor Tim Bass is portraying the role of Ralphie’s father, better known in the story as The Old Man. 

Bass has acted in other local productions, like Death and the Maiden, Mending Fences and Over the Tavern.

Bass said he has wanted to play the character ever since his son Aidan was in a production of A Christmas Story 12 years ago.

“You get to be almost cartoonish with this role, it’s really fun,” said Bass. 

The production includes a number of kids aged 11 to 16 playing the roles of the children. Bass said they have been fantastic to work with.

”We have several of them who have never even been on stage before and they just bought into it,” he said. “Now that they have gotten up on the stage for a couple of rehearsals you can see the energy and excitement picking up.”

Beaudette said directing the children in the show has been a delight.

”I am in awe of how theses young people have taken to this process in light of what they are dealing with every day — going to school in masks and it’s troubling times,” said Beaudette. “As an adult it’s really heartening to see these kids at rehearsal every day just taking these things in stride and showing the adult world that it’s just something we have to get through.”

Algoma Repertory Theatre staged a production of Harvey in March of 2020, just before the pandemic closed down just about everything in the province.

“I want to say it was the Friday night performance that people started talking about this new flu that was going around,” said Beaudette. “We were discussing whether it was just something that was going run its course and end quickly. Some people said it was the big one and we closed on Saturday night and I think it was the following week that everything started to shut down.”

Little did they know at the time that the lime lights would stay dark until last October, when the company staged a remount of its 2019 production of Evil Dead the Musical.

“We had four shows with about 120 people per night,” said Beaudette of that production.  “We decided to do that one first out of the gate after being dark since March of 2020 because we figured it was less of a rehearsal process.”

This week’s production of A Christmas Story is being staged at the Sault Community Theatre Centre. Although the venue can hold about 900, the shows will be limited to fewer seats to accommodate current public health restrictions.

“They keep every second row vacant and every group has a vacant seat on either side of it, so in the 900-seat theatre a sellout is about 300,” said Beaudette.

A Christmas Story runs nightly at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16 to 19, with an additional 1 p.m. matinee show on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are still available for all performances.