NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Nov. 6.
SEQUIM — Before the rush begins, you’re invited to sit a spell, to pause on this bench.
“The Christmas Bench” is open, beginning tonight, and it promises a little bit of everything festive and pensive to the Guy Cole Center, inside Carrie Blake Park at 202 N. Blake Ave.
Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is done in a matter of minutes, ghosts and all; a woman recites part of “A Child’s Chanukah in Pittsburgh,” and two men, who began as strangers, engage in an old-fashioned conversation.
“Bench,” a Readers Theatre Plus production running this weekend and next, is “a feel-good play,” believes Jeff Leach, the actor whose character is called The Voice of the Mall.
The comedy starts out with a couple of guys, one older and one younger, seated together by chance at a mall while their spouses shop.
Michael Aldrich plays Sam while Ken Winters, a Port Angeles actor new to Readers Theatre Plus, is Jeff.
They chat, then meet Rachel (Barbara Drennan), a Jewish woman who is hired to say “Merry Christmas” to passers-by.
As the conversation progresses, Christmases past and present unfold before them.
People share their memories of the holidays — including the irreverent ones — and there is music.
Among others, a homeless man appears, tells a story and then sings “O Holy Night.”
And one of the men on the bench turns out to be not quite who we think he is.
“There’s beautiful singing,” said production manager Sue Valnes.
“There’s questionable singing,” said Janice Parks, “Bench’s” director, who added quickly that it’s supposed to be this way.
The play is heartwarming and entertaining at the same time, Valnes believes.
As always with Readers Theatre Plus shows, “Bench” is a benefit for a local nonprofit group, and this time it’s the Sequim City Band.
To put theater-goers in the mood, the band will be at the Guy Cole Center to play 20 minutes of music before each show.
“The Christmas Bench” is for believers and non-believers, Valnes said.
The play comes in at just under two hours with an intermission, and is suitable for children who can sit for that length of time.
Alongside Aldrich, Drennan, Leach and Winters are Ric Munhall, who portrays a folk singer, a janitor, a dad and at least four more characters, and Teresa Pierce, the singer and actress who plays a mom, a security guard and a few other parts.
Parks, herself a veteran of Readers Theatre Plus holiday shows, noted that this one does not skimp on joy.
“I know the show,” she said, yet during one rehearsal after another, “I still burst out laughing.”
