A Christmas Carol, shown at the Lyric Theatre last night, was a dickens of a show even though it had been adapted by the excellent Marie Jones. It remained true to Charles Dickens, who wrote it in 1843, and it was dark. Dark in two senses, literally for much of the drama and psychologically as Ebenezer Scrooge grappled with his skinflint soul for redemption. Set designer Stuart Marshall had borrowed inspiration from Belfast’s dark Victorian entries, but also from illustrators Phiz and Cruikshank in terms of mood. The sepia set looked Victorian.
It began with engaging musicians and players bashing down the fourth wall and entertaining the full house, with a lot of families. Then the familiar tale unfolded, made Northern Irish in its locations and locutions (“Catch yourself on” observed Scrooge to himself) with Whites Tavern the source of a dodgy meal that caused Scrooge’s nightmares. It grips as it always did, with Bah! Humbug! Tossed out meanly in Dan Gordon’s inimitable style. He was a robust Scrooge, yet terrified before the end, and a tour de force.
As the Cratchits and Fred his prancing, Christmas obsessed nephew (a hilarious turn from Richard Clements) fell foul of Scrooge’s mean spirit, the stage was set for a humdinger of a downfall. So it proved and seeing Jacob Marley, plus other shades, in grave clothes was genuinely scary. So too the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future. The narrative of Tiny Tim and his family was, as Dickens intends it, a heart-tugging final way out of the dilemma. Scrooge has to warm to the story of the disabled child who may not make another Christmas and the Cratchits (excellent Matt Forsythe and Jayne Wisener, plus Ellen Whitehead as Tim) made the most of it.
Death is in fact the extra character onstage but there were laughs aplenty too. And the sight of the turkey which a now reformed Scrooge buys for his clerk’s family feast was massive and cheering, although I missed Dickens’ lengthy paean of praise to the great bird. Maybe it wasn’t dramatic enough for a drama and this was a play full of twists and turns. The moment when Scrooge turns giddy with relief to have survived the night’s torments and declare himself a true fan of Christmas worked as well as usual. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.”
The world benefits from Scrooge’s new magnanimity and his entering into the Fa la la la as at his nephew’s was well, humorously done.
The famous final line ‘God bless us, every one’. uttered by the happier Tiny Tim made two appearances, and that worked. It was sometimes hard to see where Marie Jones began and Dickens ended, which is a real compliment.
Matthew McElhinney directed with panache and the music by carol composers and Garth McConaghie added to the joy of this adaptation, well delivered by Conor Hinds and Katie Shortt.
A Christmas Carol runs at the Lyric until January 11
Jane Hardy
