Fresh take on classic Xmas tale
A FESTIVE favourite for generations, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is now so ingrained in hearts and minds that it’s not easy to shake off fixed ideas about the well-loved tale.
So can a new adaptation find something fresh in its telling without upsetting fans?
This Northern Stage production, written by Neil Bartlett and directed by Mark Calvert, is the most inventive take on the novel I’ve seen.
It’s constantly on the move and, with the audience sitting on all four sides of the stage in a re-configured auditorium, no spectator misses out on their share of the action as cast – and scenery – are propelled around the stage.
The set of Scrooge’s workplace encroaches into the audience space, making us even more a part of the story, which plays out with a great deal of song and dance while sticking closely to the original.
We first meet Scrooge in his prisonlike workplace: all-metal and hard, cold and unyielding like the man himself, who soon shows his true colours as he gives short shrift to a Christmas Eve carol singer and complains of the greed of workers who expect paid time off on Christmas day.
A live band led by well-known trombonist Hannabiell Sanders ,and Tim Dalling, formerly of the Old Rope Swing Band – who also take on roles in the story – adds to the atmosphere.
And this can switch in an instant to downright spooky, when – after more quick changes which see Scrooge’s wheeled metal office transform into his bed – he is warned of visitations to come when the ghost of his late colleague appears – a female Marley here, played Rachel Dawson.
Special mention must go to lighting designer Sam Vivash and set and costume designer Rhys Jarman, who took inspiration for the show’s 1920s’ setting from Peaky Blinders and The Great Gatsby, with the former evident in the chorus’s caps and overcoats, which flap open to reveal lighting strips as they move, and the latter captured in the second act which opens with a musical blast which jazzes up the action. There are some really clever ideas here and they keep the audience on its toes: characters from Scrooge’s background appear as silhouettes against a screen as they flicker through his past and all the ghosts are brilliantly realised: that of Christmas past appearing on stilts and the even taller ghost of Christmas yet to come – operated by a puppeteer – having a disconcerting presence at the side of the stage. Just as well then that Nick Figgis creates a few laughs in his lead role of Scrooge once the old miser begins to see the errors of his ways and that the music is so energising, while the songs show off some great voices in the ensemble, including Charlotte Turrell’s carol singer.
It’s the contributions of the whole cast and the behind-thescenes team which make the show a success and ensure this re-telling adds to rather than detracts from a traditional favourite.
■ It runs until January 5. Call the box office on 0191 230 5151. Will Pennington as the ghost of Christmas past