Third time lucky for a delicious festive feast
A Christmas Carol (Old Vic) Verdict: Comfort and joy ★★★★★
THIS is full-fat Christmas: an unashamed festive primer with the slick production values of a musical and the gentle depth and charm of a thoroughly entertaining play.
Lanterns flicker across the Old Vic’s ceiling and cast members mill about, dispensing warm mince pies to the audience — daylight bribery which, I can merrily report, worked a treat.
This is Scrooge’s third season at the Vic. Originally it was a rather meek production, with Rhys Ifans playing his strange, grumpy self. Last year, Stephen Tompkinson gave it a whirl. But what a transformation for this ‘third time lucky’ revival.
With the exceptionally good Paterson Joseph in the lead role, it’s lost a bit of the panto, and revved up the gritty drama. Unlike previous adaptations, it’s not saccharine. There are no Muppets.
Writer Jack Thorne has made a genuinely tense fable of generosity and the resilience of human kindness. I’m not usually a weeper, but I was pushed to it.
You know the story: ‘covetous old sinner’ Ebenezer is taken on a journey by visiting ghosts, through memories pleasant and scarring, until he finally resolves to stop being a miserable old fart. The design is stunning; the stage is hazy, dark and spooky, then warm and homely and fuzzy.
And the music is meshed so beautifully into the action. Somewhere between carol and choral, it’s comforting yet unsettling. I became one giant goosebump as O Holy Night was sung, hauntingly and delicately, while a furious argument played out.
As Scrooge, Joseph gives the old misery tangible emotional baggage and heaps of believability as he does a U-turn on his life of humbug.
Ten-year- old Lenny Rush (sharing the role with three other children) stole the night as Tiny Tim. The audience melted when he walked on, and his performance perfectly wound up the waterworks without sacrificing the truth of the tale.
What a tonic: two hours where the promise of Christmas is still unspoiled by busy, selfish, stressy reality.
Before we’re booted out into the cold, we get one more carol — Silent Night, chimed out delicately by the cast on hand bells, in the dim lantern light. Scrooge and revived Tiny Tim are given the two final notes as the lights slowly extinguish, leaving me dabbing at my eyes. Again.