Sunday 13 December 2009

PERFORMANCE REVIEW: A Christmas Carol

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A Christmas Carol

Southwark Playhouse, London Bridge

Trying to pick your way through the large amount of turkey that appears on the Christmas stages can be difficult. Skipping between nonsensical pantos and classical ballets, it may seem hard to find a middle ground and a theatrical experience that avoids conventions and stereotypes. That’s why it’s great to have the Southwark Playhouse and productions like A Christmas Carol, which provides us with a real Christmas treat.

Symbiotically placing Neil Bartlett’s Dickensian adaptation within the atmospheric setting of the London vaults, director Ellie Jones creates a promenade performance where audience members pick their way through the dank spaces experiencing the sensations of Victorian London. Sensible footwear and warm jackets are a must as we follow Ebenezer Scrooge on his night time journey with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Throughout the journey we are surprised with strange characters and inventive uses of props as desks double up to become cupboards and wardrobes, beds reveal hidden pathways and ghosts emerge through an array of household furniture.

While audience participation is often both feared and actively avoided, particularly in the uber-sensitive world of contemporary London, the cast of A Christmas Carol interact in a manner that makes the collected audience want to join in and become part of the story, whether it be joining the Cratchit’s for supper or creating decorations and dancing with Scrooge at Christmas parties past. And it’s this audience participation that brings life to the production and pulls all deeper into the heart of the story. Spontaneous eruptions of singing coupled with bursts of Christmas music re-awaken the feelings of joyous times spent with friends and family around a warm fire, and it’s not long before we start to empathise towards the menacing Scrooge, played superbly by David Fielder with an array of facial and corporeal expressions perfectly conveying the bitterness and eventual excitement of his character. Fielder is supported with strong performances from Steve Hansell as the put-upon Bob Cratchit, Sarah Paul playing his wife, and their children, who make one look forward to the impending happy ending.

By subverting the traditions and breaking the conventions, the Southwark Playhouse offer up a wonderfully alternative production of the classic tale that doesn’t involve a cinema screen and Jim Carrey. A perfect way to get you in the mood for the yuletide season.

Alex Wilshire

A Christmas Carol runs at the Southwark Playhouse until 9th January

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