Writer: Charles Dickens
Adapter: Vincent Regan
Director: John McAndrew
This is the perfect way to celebrate East Riding Theatre’s 10th anniversary, a return to the first play performed at the theatre in a brand-new production by John McAndrew. In these difficult times for theatre, it’s good to see the largely volunteer-run East Riding Theatre prospering so effectively on a modest scale that refuses to compromise on quality.
The wing-less stage has sometimes been a limitation, but scenic designer Ed Ullyart knows how to make it work, with a series of blank doors at the back that enable perfectly synchronised exits and entrances and dramatic reveals, a pretty much bare stage except for Scrooge’s bed, all flapping curtains, and basic furniture brought on as needed, and a space above the doors to show images and videos, notably of Marley’s funeral. This opening, leading into all the cast reciting lines from the original (“Marley was dead”, etc.), pitches us straight into Scrooge’s story.
Vincent Regan’s adaptation is close to the original. After Marley is safely buried, we see Scrooge in his office on Christmas Eve, begrudging his clerk Bob Cratchit a whole day off for Christmas, dismissing his jovial nephew Fred’s invitation to dine on Christmas Day and the charity workers’ Christmas appeal with equal disdain. Malcolm Tomlinson’s Scrooge is totally convincing, a selfishly angry old man, one who could have grown from the youth we see in the Christmas Past scenes, mulishly underplayed at first, watching the scenes the spirits create with growing horror, then suddenly bursting out with mischievous joy on Christmas Day.
Apart from Marley, all booming voice and rattling chains, the spirits are not in themselves terrifying, but the scenes they show are increasingly so. Christmas Past revisits happy days and his devoted sister Fan, making his breach from his beloved Belle because of his obsession with business the decisive turning-point for Scrooge. Christmas Present shows a horrified Scrooge the happy scenes at the Cratchits’ and Fred’s houses, with his health being drunk at both. The silent Christmas Future simply points the way to the death of Tiny Tim Cratchit and, then, appallingly, Scrooge’s own death followed by scavengers helping themselves to his possessions.
The production is pleasingly straightforward, with emphasis on the joy of Christmas, with carols or original songs by Will Gardner bursting in at every opportunity. The cast of eleven includes two puppeteers and eight actors playing anything from two to six parts in support of Malcolm Tomlinson. Peter McMillan is excellent as Bob Cratchit, never downtrodden despite Scrooge’s persecution, and cuts a dash as Mr Fezziwig in Scrooge’s past; Peter McGovern manages to project wholesome goodness as Fred as well as suggesting the existence of same in young Scrooge; Samuel Edward-Cook brings out the contrast between the once-miserly Jacob Marley and the bringer of happy scenes Christmas Present. Katie Cannon sails her way through six tiny parts, making a real, if brief, impact as Fan and finishing up staggering back to the happily reformed Scrooge with the Christmas bird.
Runs until 28th December 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Delightful adaptation
