Dinner Theater in Barrett bites the cub

A review of the 'Sven and Ole Christmas Carol'

By Tom Obert

Cub Theater Critic

. . . now where were we, before life interrupted? Oh yeah - through a silent auction in support of Alex's AAAA Theatre, Ruthie won two tickets to a dinner theatre performance of "A Sven and Ole Christmas Carol" at the Prairie Wind Theatre in Barrett. The play was written by Miltona's own, Kevin Lee, a man who also wears many hats (a haberdashers delight!) for the AAAA Theatre. Accordingly, it is unlikely that one could see this play on Broadway, at the Kennedy Center, or even at the Guthrie. Yet. Those in attendance, therefore, were a privileged lot.

Anyway, when we arrived at the theatre, about a 40-minute drive from Alexandria, we almost immediately ran into Claremont Anderson. We know Claremont, who lives in Hoffman, because he is the DFL Chair for Grant County. We did not know that Claremont is a locally-famous actor who was playing Ole that night! Needless to say, any attempt at an impartial review of the play went out the window right then and there. Some may recall that Claremont, and his wife Nancy, lost their son, Stuart, a 44-year old major in the National Guard, two years ago in a helicopter crash in Iraq on his 2nd tour of duty there.

We chatted with Claremont a bit before the play - the usual serious stuff about DFL senate candidates - so we were taken aback when we discovered he has quite a comedic strain that came through beautifully in his role as Ole, the star of the play.

They served meat balls, mashed potatoes, green beans, cole slaw, rolls, lefse, rosettes, and a chocolate sundae, with a cash bar for wine, to what I think they said was 140 patrons. It was all quite tasty!

Back to the plot, which was about the folks (Ole, Sven, Lena, et al) in a small town rehearsing "A Christmas Carol" to perform during the holidays. Ole played Scrooge. When it came time for Scrooge's first "Bah! Humbug!," Ole stopped everything to ask the director what "Bah! Humbug!" means. After several frustrating attempts to explain it, the exasperated director finally said, "It's just an expression, like 'Bite Me!'" So, the rehearsal started again and when it came to the appointed place, Ole, as Scrooge, blurted out - "Bite Me!" It brought down the house.

The drive home was eerie - the 25 miles between Alex and Barrett is absolutely empty except for the occasional farm house. It was like navigating in the middle of nowhere, except . . . in the distance, at about 45 degrees to starboard almost the entire way home, were the twinkling lights of Andes Tower Hills, the downhill ski area near Hoffman.