TheatreWorld Magazine Review of A Christmas Carol 2009

Charles Dickens’

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Now playing at the King’s Head Theatre

As lavish a production as you’re ever likely to see shoehorned onto the Kings Head’s tiny stage, Phil Willmott’s musical adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of several current stage and screen versions in and around the capital this festive season.

This latest take on the old story is presented through the eyes of Dickens himself (the engaging Nigel Lister) who has just 90 minutes to persuade his disinterested publisher (and the characters in and around Paul Burgess’s versatile Victorian inn) that his new tale deserves a wider public.

From the outset, audience and actors co-habit within the same boisterous space, the aisles delineated by ‘cobblestones’, carol singers lustily celebrating the season of goodwill and various ‘authentic’ Dickensian characters coming and going about their everyday business before the evening proper begins in the on-stage pub.

The large cast – on occasion a bit too uncomfortably large for even director Joe Fredericks to effectively contain within the confines of this pocket-handkerchief performing space – brings to life a multiplicity of characters that range from Victorian waifs to grave robbers and merchants in scenes that variously invigorate or tug at the heartstrings. Singing an eclectic score with conviction and admirable clarity (Phil Willmott’s own lyrics are cleverly matched to popular carols and a variety of tunefully-classical sources), each player assumes a number of parts and, by and large, fills them convincingly. The small band is made up of peripatetic ensemble members tootling, bowing, plucking or banging as they move in and around the auditorium.

The main characters are all eminently watchable; Kilke Van Buren’s amiable Ghost of Christmas Past and Richard Delaney’s effervescent Christmas Present are effectively augmented by puppet apparitions, with Tiny Tim taking on the mute mantle of the spirit of things to come, whose own death is presaged in a movingly-staged candlelit vigil to a touching rendition of Silent Night.

At the heart of it all is, of course, Ebenezer Scrooge. Love him or hate him – and we do both during the course of this evening – he must always be believable as a character rather than a caricature.

Looking like a dyspeptic turkey all too aware of his imminent fate, Jonathan Battersby provides a multi-faceted portrayal of a man whose emotionally-stunted childhood has fashioned the adult he was to become: unapproachable, defensive, self-centred and yet, beneath it all, touchingly and imperfectly human. To see his eyes cloud over as he watches his life disintegrate in front of him is to share a well of unfathomable sorrow.

At the start of this enjoyable evening, Dickens expresses the sentiment that “London needs Christmas more than ever.” In these difficult times, we certainly do and this invigorating production succeeds in encouraging us all to re-consider our lives and evaluate what Christmas should mean to us and our fellow men. This gloriously-timeless story is as universally relevant today as it ever was.

Box Office: 0844 209 0326 Website: www.kingsheadtheatre.org

Performance Schedule – check press for holiday matinee and other details

Ticket Prices: £20 Premium Reserved, £18 adults, £15.50 children, £58 Family ticket (2 adults & 2 children)

Reviews by Clive Burton for Theatreworld Internet Magazine