A CHRISTMAS CAROL. To 3 January.
Coventry
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
by Charles Dickens adapted by Andy Cannon and Iain Johnstone
Warwick Arts Centre To 3 January 2004
Mon-Sat 2.30pm and 7pm no performance 31 December, 1 January
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 024 7652 4524
www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 December
Lots of tricks and laughs, but Dickens' own magic is diluted.Though sticking to Dickens' point and outline, Andy Cannon and Iain Johnstone of Scotland's Wee Stories have altered many details. Partly this accommodates a limited cast when the number of male and female actors don't tally with the characters' gender balance, it's as legitimate to re-sex the character as play cross-gender.
Some changes make for a smooth flow of action without loss perhaps even some gains. Scrooge's first supernatural encounter occurs not via Marley's bechained Ghost dragging his way through Scrooge's empty house, but with Ebenezer (for some unexplained reason) visiting his ex-partner's grave in a cemetery as fog-engulfed as the opening of Great Expectations.
It intensifies the sense of death, linking to Scrooge's own tombstone as foretold by the final Ghost, and allows Scrooge's refusal to donate to carol singers to be contrasted with Marley's Ghost trying ineffectually to make up for lost time with a small coin. They cannot see him but sense something sinister and back away. Chillingly effective.
There's a fine theatricality more than once Kern Falconer's Scrooge is switched for a double, enhancing the sense of unreality. Plus effective theatrical trickery as Scrooge's blanket and slippers whiz over the stage. Falconer, with his microphoned moanings, is a man isolated from society and very funny. His tones, and the piled-house set (Scrooge's huge counting-house window allowing interesting street cameos), suggest Scrooge made his money in Edinburgh's Old Town.
But tinker with Dickens at your peril. Plenty cloys or is unfashionable sentiment and religion are banished from the dialogue here but his world is so vividly imagined that any changes create cracks.
Wee Stories' determination to be funny sits uneasily. A puppet dog growling at Scrooge is one thing; a puppet Tiny Tim with a mind of his own removes the fear of death so important to Scrooge's development.
Again, Want and Ignorance don't feature, while Falconer so downplays the line about the poor dying to decrease the surplus population that it has to be mentioned later as something he's said. The instant recognition's lost. As so often, immediate theatrical gains come at longer-term dramatic cost.
Ebenezer Scrooge: Kern Falconer
Jacob Marley: Andy Cannon
Urchin Boy/Ghost of Christmas Past/Belle/Mrs Cratchit: Fiona Steele
Bob Cratchit/Cookie/Old Hag: Sandy Grierson
Scrooge's Niece/Eliza/Mrs Fezziwig: Gillian Kerr
Business Man/Mr Fezziwig/Ghost of Christmas Present: Richard Addison
Director: Iain Johnstone
Designers: Shona Reppe, Caroline Fearon
Lighting: John Mackenzie
Costumes/Puppets: Shona Reppe
2003-12-27 01:15:57