The show is over (as of last night), but don’t worry! It’ll be back in 2011!
So we went to see A Klingon Christmas Carol on Saturday night. My cousin Dan called me up and asked if we wanted to go. The conversation went thusly.
Me: Office, this is Ipstenu.
Dan: Hey, what up?
Me: Hey coz! I got like 5 before a meeting. S’up?
Dan: You want to go see “A Klingon Christmas Carol”
Me: *busts out laughing* Seriously?
Dan: Yep!
Me: I don’t think my Klingon’s good enough to follow along.
Dan: They have supertitles.
Me: Oh! Well… Let me as Mrs. Ipstenu. I’ll call you back.
I could not keep a straight face in the meeting. And yes, this is a very real thing. Here’s the blurb:
Scrooge has no honor, nor any courage. Can three ghosts help him to become the true warrior he ought to be in time to save Tiny Tim from a horrible fate? Performed in the Original Klingon with English Supertitles, and narrative analysis from The Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology.
The Dickens classic tale of ghosts and redemption adapted to reflect the Warrior Code of Honor and then translated into tlhIngan Hol (That’s the Klingon Language).
To be honest, while I read this blurb, somehow my mind blocked out that the narrator was a Vulcan until she showed up and started to narrate. She was spot on perfect.
The costumes were perfect! The ghost of “Khalless Past” was in the TOS outfit worn by the Klingons (no bumpy heads). TimHom (Tiny Tim) was a puppet, which worked. Everyone looked right, if some of their prosthetics and face paint were a bit obvious. The Klingon was pretty good too. The humor value was insanely high, especially if you like Star Trek. Probably if you didn’t, actually, but more to the point, everyone there is a big old geek. The ushers apparently were all really excited too, and actively tried to get seats in the show every performance. Yeah, it was good.
The story was … well, it was “A Christmas Carol”. The most over-told of all Dickens’ works, and because it’s the shortest, the one everyone and their mother is familiar with. Too familiar. Thankfully, the original tlhIngan Hol translation changed enough of it to make the story actually poignant. The problem I’ve always had with the story is that people are down on Scrooge for being a workaholic. SQuja’ (yes, that’s his Klingon name) is a coward. He refuses to live up to the ideals of his people. That’s something we can all get behind. There’s nothing wrong with being a hard driven worker, but to act without honor and courage? Well, that’s just not Klingon! So I have to say that I think the story works BETTER in Klingon!
The fight scenes in the first act were pretty … obvious. Even the ones in Xena: Live were better. But I think, next season, they’ll have it down pat. The second act, with the bathleth (yes, they fought with batleth!) went better, so you could tell which ones they’d practiced more. The best part about the fighting though, was when vRed (Fred, the nephew) and his wife fought each other at the pre-Year Games fighting-and-dinner-party. Now, if you know anything about Klingons you know that for them, fighting is foreplay. So as they fight, they’re getting a little frisky, until they ‘tie’ and are about to make out, when their guests start hooting and hollering. This part was not translated on the SuperTitles, but everyone knew they were saying “Get a room!”
After the show, we met the actors. I met @jenusellis, whom I and Mrs. Ipstenu had been tweeting for a couple days, and she was very friendly. One of the other Klingons saw my shirt (I had my Khaaaaan!! shirt on) and gave me a hug, which accidentally bashed my leg a bit, and now I have a bruise. He was totally hitting on me, right? Right. Did I mention they got a pickup in the Wall Street Journal?
Anyway, the show is over, but they promised to come back next year. So in 2011, remember the words of TimHom! “WE ARE KLINGON!”