The Rose Theatre, Kingston-Upon-Thames – until 2nd January 2023
Reviewed by Bobbi Fenton
5*****
As we dive headfirst into the festive season this year, there is nothing better to get into the Christmas spirit (no pun intended) than ‘A Christmas Carol’ at the Rose. Filled with wonderful music, festive joy, and a very fun story, this retelling of the famous story by Charles Dickens is genuine magic.
The children of the Ragged School, played by the members of the Rose Theatre Young Company (Blue Cast), takes the original story, and makes it even better. We see the magic of Charlie Dickens (Elexi Walker) as she encourages the children to create their own version of the story. Together they discover the reason why Scrooge (Penny Layden) is so miserable and greedy, even at Christmas. The Ghost of Christmas Past (Chloe Nichols), a creepy child ghost, takes Scrooge back to her youth and we witness the painful loss of young Scrooges (Penny Bennett) siblings, Edmund (Edmund) and Fan (Isla Griffiths), and Scrooge’s first experience as an apprentice under the cheerful and jolly Fezziwig (Killian Macardle). Then, the Ghost Of Christmas Present (Lizzie Winkler), who starts off as a clown but later transforms into a more eerie character along with the children ignorance (Silvia Shea) and want (Chloe Nichols), shows Scrooge the reality of Christmas that year. We see Bob Cratchit (Killian Macardle) and his family laughing at Scrooge and her greed and misery. Scrooge is bewildered, both by the Cratchit family’s generosity in giving away food to the food bank and that they do not like her. We finally see the Ghost of Christmas yet to come, brilliantly puppeteered by Jacob Towey, Ellie Searle, and Elliot Shepherd. Scrooge is forced to face the reality that she is not very popular, and if she carries on hoarding her money and being generally unpleasant to everybody, when she dies people will not care, and just take her belongings to sell.
Throughout the story, Robin (Amelie Abbott) one of the children of the ragged school becomes more and more annoyed at the other children, particularly Maud (Lily Rowell) who begin to pity Scrooge after seeing her past, present, and future. However, Robin soon stops feeling so angry when Scrooge decides to change her ways, and gives the children full control of all her money following the events of the previous night.
Overall, this show is filled with absolutely brilliant songs, and even has one or two jokes about our current political climate compared with the poor of Victorian England during Dickens’ time. This should definitely not be missed as it is absolutely fantastic.