IT’S HARD to believe that It’s a Wonderful Life was, for many years, languishing in obscurity. The film was so neglected that its copyright lapsed in the 1970s – allowing TV stations looking for cheap programming to run it to their hearts’ content.

Countless Christmas airings later, of course, Frank Capra’s masterful tribute to common humanity and heavenly intervention is recognized as a bona fide classic – so much so that one wonders how anyone could have the audacity to tamper with it.

This evidently doesn’t bother Vancouver’s Pacific Theatre (PT), which is currently presenting the Canadian premiere of  This Wonderful Life – a one-actor version of the film’s story, starring Dan Amos (inset).  

As PT describes it, the play presents “Christmas Eve in a wartime New England town. Despairing over a life of dreams deferred, George Bailey sets out to throw himself from a bridge – until a dotty angel-in- waiting shows him what might have been had he never lived at all . . .

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“Ever-faithful to the script, playwright Steve Murray brings us all the show’s beloved or unforgettable characters, including George Bailey, Mister Potter, Clarence and little Zuzu – who reminds us all that every time a bell rings,  an angel gets his wings.”    

This Wonderful Life runs until December 29. For more information: pacifictheatre.org or 604.731.5518.

– David F. Dawes

December 2007