Roman Theatre of St Albans – until 23rd December 2022
Reviewed by Lucy Webb
5*****
As Christmas rolls around once more, the inevitable deluge of Christmas Carol productions descend on the theatre industry again – a well-known tale of the redemption of a miser and one of the primary sources for Christmas traditions, as well as arguably Dickens’ most iconic story. Indeed, by this point, it must be hard for theatre makers to find something unique to do with it. However this is exactly what OVO Theatre have managed to accomplish with their outdoor promenade performance at the Roman Theatre, staging a refreshing, brisk and heart-warming (if not entirely foot-warming) take on an old classic that stays true to the author’s prose, whilst breathing theatrical life into a historical site with an energetic and committed cast of talented actors.
Plot-wise, I’m going to be brief, as this story hardly needs a detailed breakdown, and if you don’t know it then I’d seriously question how much you were paying attention in your GCSE English lessons, or whether you own a working television. There’s been a plethora of screen adaptations of it since the invention of cinema, and once you’ve got a version with Michael Caine and the Muppets (my personal favourite), I think you can safely say the story is now part of our cultural christmas consciousness. Old Scrooge is an uncaring, selfish man of business, left cold and careless when dealing with the fates of others, and is visited one Christmas Eve by four ghosts to make him change his ways. An entertaining tale with humour and the supernatural trappings of the Victorian interest with the occult, and a message for readers to seek to make the world a kinder, warmer place – especially in our hearts.
In terms of the production, the audience are guided carefully round the ruins of an archeological site, with each scene taking place in a new location. It’s a clever move to set the piece outside as Dickens’ cold world is brought to 5-D life and we are experiencing it with him as he moves through the hauntings that transform him. We even have Dickens himself as the narrator, reading out some choice titbits taken from the novella, presumably because the adaptor Janet Podd couldn’t work out a clean way to turn them into feasible dialogue. Opting for a staging like this keeps the audience on their feet and moving, advisable in this recent cold spell, and it allows for moments of immersion as the actors involve us as party guests (yes, there is indeed the option to join in with a dance sequence, but don’t worry – no one expects you to pop’n’lock or moonwalk unless you want to) and later indeed become Cratchit children present at the Christmas feast.
Jilly Bond is Scrooge, and she invests her characterisation with a gusto and classical strength that demonstrates her talents as a powerhouse performer. She handles the slow transformation of Scrooge perfectly, and every beat and nuance of the character’s journey is clearly pinned down from moment to moment. She is capable of fury and pathos where needed and by the end of the show she has completely evolved in front of us in a believable and relatable manner. Her physicality is top notch stuff, and she was a joy to watch – delivering her own spin on an oft-performed role and yet handling the famous lines with care and respect – she is the Scrooge you want and yet a Scrooge that can still surprise you with something new. Emma Durkin plays Tiny Tim and Young Scrooge – investing the former with a youthful saintliness and the latter with a hardened sadness that links into Bond’s older version. She is also beautifully front and centre for the script’s singing portions, and her version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is haunting and heartbreaking in its soulful tenderness. I personally was a little confused as to what was exactly ailing Tiny Tim – he has a cough but it doesn’t affect his singing voice whatsoever, he has a walking stick but is able to climb up to stand on a wobbly stool – but best not to focus on the details too much – he’s going to die if things don’t change – die of what? – who knows – he seems quite healthy and nimble though? – he’s just poorly, okay, shut up and drink your hot chocolate.
Anna Franklin is Mrs Fezziwig, Mrs Cratchit, Mrs Dilber and Mrs Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. Franklin is clearly a born performer, with theatre in her blood (and lungs) – she’s responsible for 90% of the Christmas cheer in the show, and is so watchable in any role she’s given – she’s doubling up in roles with barely a moment to breathe, but Franklin is always crystal clear about whom she’s playing when, and has that perfectly rare quality of being able to combine indefatigable charm with a poised and polished comedic timing. Lyle Fulton was Charles Dickens himself on the night I saw the show, although I understand the role is split between himself and Matthew Rowan across the run (I didn’t see Rowan in this, but remember his fantastic turn as Casca in OVO’s recent production of Julius Caesar so I’m going to assume he’s also excellent). Fulton has a lot of the grunt work in the show – he’s not really a fleshed-out character on the page, just a narrator to bridge the gaps and fill in details (presumably a nod to the real Dickens’ reading tours later in life), but Fulton leaps over the shortcomings of his lines and infuses his performance with such a wonderful amount of humour, improvisation, softness and wit – he’s far more interesting when he allows himself to run with his own comedic brilliance than he is when forced to describe a setting or the Victorian London “sooty atoms”. As a guide through the story and site, Fulton exuded such a natural sense of precision and clarity of character, I would have followed him for another hour (as long as we stopped somewhere warm first).
Katie Hamilton is the Ghost of Christmas Present via Edinburgh and gives a soft and caring portrayal of perhaps the third most iconic character in the story. Usually a gentle giant in a green coat, kind of like a cross between Jesus and Sesame Street’s Big Bird – Hamilton portrays this most “present” of ghosts (groan, sorry, couldn’t resist) with a deep humanity and absolutely flourishes towards the end of her time when she unleashes a deep, searing fury at the hypocrisy of Scrooge, recounting his previous unfeeling statements back at him, practically spitting them at Bond’s feet. The fact that Hamilton also plays Dick Wilkins, Young Woman and the oddly titled “Remarkable Boy” is further testament of Hamilton’s chameleon-like performance abilities – she is a talented and graceful actress with no doubt a bright Ghost of Castings Yet To Come waiting for the bells to ring.
Peter Wood plays Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley and Old Joe – and he seems to relish the breadth of these three contrasting roles, rising to the challenge of the high tortured drama of Jacob, the cheeky gimlet-eyed clowning of Fezziwig and the good-natured, wholesome patriarch of Cratchit. Lastly, but by no means least, we have Jane Withers playing the Ghost of Christmas Past, Charitable Lady and Martha Cratchit. Having seen Withers in three OVO productions now, I always wished the powers that be would give her more to do, and it seems I’ve been given my christmas wish, as Withers is finally allowed to shine – and literally shine she indeed does (right out of her crown). Withers is absolutely captivating as the Ghost of Christmas Past, from her measured and otherworldly vocalisations, to her ethereal floating physicality – she’s probably the most believable of the ghosts in terms of delivery and movement, and her performance really stands out for its attention to detail and considered decisions. As Martha Cratchit, Withers is allowed to flex her comedic muscles as the hardworking eldest daughter of the Cratchit family, ad-libbing in a delightful way and possibly responsible for the biggest laugh of the night – she knows exactly how to play her scenes and how and when to hold our focus. Whilst it must be tempting to drop character during the traversal sections of the show where no actual scene is taking place, Withers digs in deep, banters with the audience and keeps us believing in the world of the play – she is a credit to the production and to OVO in general – no wonder they keep asking her back.
OVO Artistic Director Adam Nichols co-directs the piece with script adaptor Janet Podd, and it’s clear they were unified in their vision of a classic take on the carol – this is a tale of Scrooge that you will remember and be familiar with, and they handle the light and shade of the tale well – drawing your attention to what’s important and wisely trimming what’s not. There’s a lot of humour in the piece, and nostalgia for lost youth or mistakes of the past, and Nichols and Podd are deft in their decisions about where the story beats are, and how and when to shift a gear with the pacing. No one moment outstays its welcome, and the overall feeling of the show is one of careful selection and astute artistry. There’s only one questionable moment just after halfway where the actors tableau into a group, the lighting turns blue, and the recorded sound of waves starts playing whilst Scrooge says something about “have they no refuge” whilst the actors all hold their hands out as if asking for money or food – it’s a little incongruous to the piece in that it’s half trying to be a movement piece in a show without any others – and the choice to play a seaside sound effect is presumably there to evoke modern-day asylum seekers arriving to the UK in boats – it’s a jarring image, particularly as the rest of the aesthetic in terms of costume and dialogue is Victorian. Well no doubt good-intentioned, it is a shame to force a modern message or connotation that isn’t overtly from the original text when all the rest of the production is. Whilst you could argue that the virtues of kindness and empathy and generosity are exactly what these families coming to this country in the 21st Century need, to include it so overtly seems heavy-handed and is the one moment of the show where we are forced to witness the opinion of the directors, rather than hear what Dickens was saying and draw our own parallels in our modern lives. I would suggest further implementations of movement through the play so that the device is threaded more consistently through the piece, or cutting it entirely and letting the Cratchits do the message for you.
Tom Cagnoni’s music as show composer and Rachael Light’s costumes as designer are both wonderful evocative and polished – drawing us into the world of the story, and really cementing the Victorian aesthetic – although I personally pined for a traditional depiction of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come – it’s one of the most iconic images in the story – and whilst a robed skeletal figure must be a nightmare to design, particularly for a promenade outdoor performance – the final section of the play was missing something without it.
Simon Nicholas’s set designer credit must, in truth, be shared with the English Heritage charity, as a large part of the work in building the world of the story was done for him by the decision to set it in such a location as the Roman Theatre site – he’s got some wonderful ideas to lay on top of it to complement the show and bring the tale to life – there is a moment at the end of the piece involving a transformation of one object in the set into another as time passes which I won’t spoil here – but it is an absolute stroke of genius and got an audible reaction from the audience I was in. Festoon lighting fills the site and gives a firelight feeling to the scenes, and there is an over-sized grave stone at one point that again brought out “oooooohs” from my audience. The Roman theatre location itself is wonderfully atmospheric, and adds so much to the piece, it’s a really unique experience that further shows how the company has evolved and continues to move from success to success.
If I had one confusion in the piece, it’s the interval. Halfway through the play we are guided down into the central arena, and are made to feel as though we are characters in the story taking part in Fezziwig’s party. We are no longer observers to the action but participants in it – the actors come interact with us, there is music playing and we are invited to dance as though we are in the scene ourselves. All this would be fine, of course, except for the fact that there is a bar to get wine and hot chocolate and various baked goods, for which they charge money. I would never deny a theatre the opportunity to make income from its bar, all power to them, and the mulled wine is lovely (if powerfully spirited), but the choice to make this financial payment part of the story – and inserting it into a party where Scrooge is being reminded that the host of the party is doing it out of his own kindness – he’s not charging his friends for anything – the spirit even saying afterwards that Fezziwig paid for the whole thing himself just so people could be happy for a night – is oddly jarring. Surely, if this were part of the kindness element of the story, why are we, the guests, being charged? Again, this is not to ask for freebies, or to deny the theatre the right to make money off of drinks and food, I’m sure it all helps the cash flow, but placing it there in the story is strange. Podd, in her production notes, tells us the aspect of Scrooge she wanted to focus on was his obsession with “the business of making money”, so perhaps the producers of the show might be getting a visit from ghosts of their own some time soon. It would work absolutely fine as a pause in the tale to return to the bar, it’s merely the weaving into the narrative that doesn’t make thematic sense. And if it has to be part of the story, this opportunity for secondary transactions would surely be better suited to when Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present go visit the busy London streets which are filled with markets and commerce (a scene present in the book, but absent from the show).
This small confusion aside, the piece is a wonderful idea, fully realised and confidently performed. OVO theatre have breathed new life into an old tale, thanks to a beautiful setting and a talented and indefatigable performers that shine and soar despite the cold conditions and colossal amount of work required of them. I am not a great devotee of the Christmas Carol, nor indeed of outdoor performances in December – but after seeing this magical, mood-filled, vibrant and musical adaptation – I did come out feeling incredibly Christmassy – and so perhaps, in letting OVO tell me an old tale, this particular Scrooge might have had their own visit from the spirits tonight as well.
Ticket Booking: ovo.org.uk/
