A CHRISTMAS CAROL. To 3 January.
Basingstoke.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
by Charles Dickens adapted by Richard Williams.
Haymarket Theatre To 3 January 2009.
2pm & 7pm.
Runs 2hr 45min One interval.
TICKETS: 01256 844244.
www.anvilarts.org.uk
Review Mark Courtice 31 December.
Black Christmas.
Lights up, to reveal a black set, a coffin stage-centre; thus the Haymarket's Christmas offering nails its colours (or lack of them) to the mast. There is a challenge in making Dickens' tale of meanness and redemption into Christmas jollity, because the most part of the story is in the meanness. This is particularly the case if, like adaptor/director Richard Williams, you stick firmly to the original.
With designer David Colllis' dun, grey and black coloured costumes and Arnim Friess's crepuscular lighting, gloom is the overwhelming note of the evening.
The benefits are integrity, and with the addition of Stephen McNeff's spiky arrangements of little known carols, an evening that almost feels like proper theatre. From the chatter and shifting this is not an evening for the very young, being both grown up and quite frightening from time to time.
The device of using the cast as narrators, mainly using Dickens' words, means that the stage is full a lot of the time - odd, when Scrooge was supposed to be alone with his demons.
The musical arrangements use the excellent voices of the company to good effect. Young locals as extras are a good source of energy but it is a mistake to use one for the ghost of Christmas past, as she lacks authority and any sense of threat.
In an ensemble company all pull their weight, especially as singers and narrators. Michael Roberts as Scrooge is strangely muted, forswearing any sense of power and enjoyment of his awfulness. This makes his likelihood of conversion more real if divesting the process of vigour.
Williams directs his own adaptation efficiently, moving things on with good pace. A snow scene is made with economy (of the best sort - nothing to do with saving money) and looks fantastic. The contrasts that the story demands are less successfully handled; too often this is gloomy not ghostly, and the good nature of the world Scrooge eventually joins just not jolly and colourful enough.
Scrooge: Michael Roberts.
Bob Cratchit: Andrew Price.
Mrs Cratchit: Jo Castleton.
Marley's Ghost: Martin Nelson.
Scrooge's Nephew: Philip Benjamin.
Belle: Rhiannon Meades.
Ghost of Christmas Present: Tom Silburn.
Mr Fezziwig: Neil Gore.
Scrooge as a Young Man: Thomas Wilton.
Tiny Tim: Harrison Cohen/Marcus Coosey.
Director: Richard Williams;
Designer: David Collis;
Lighting: Arnim Friess;
Music: Stephen McNeff.
2009-01-02 01:42:47