A Christmas Carol is the quintessential festive story and so many people have given it a go – from Alastair Sim to Patrick Stewart and The Muppets – but none of them go far from Charles Dickens’ original novel.

Never one to follow the crowd, Kingston’s Rose Theatre is letting the rest of London get on with celebs and pantomimes and is instead putting on its own heartwarming version of the story of Scrooge and Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, starring a cast of professional actors and 51 local children.

It has been adapted and directed by Ciaran McConville, who has previously adapted the highly successful Horrible Histories for the stage.

Speaking to Vibe, Ciaran said: I think each version offers something different.

“It is really interesting going back watching the 1935 (starring Seymour Hicks) version – just the different accents and styles and the way the story is told.

“I think the Muppets (1992) is an institution in its own right and has a place in the canon and is incredibly funny and Michael Caine is great in it being Michael Caine.

“The Jim Carrey version (2009, directed by Back to the Future’s Robert Zemeckis), how they animated that, is fabulous.

“But they all come back to the book and what’s interesting about them – even the Muppets – is that you don’t have to deviate far from that book. It’s written like music.

“The challenge – and I’m sure this is probably being faced on a different scale by the production of Harry Potter that is starting work now – is how do you take those wonderful imaginative moments and put them on stage?

“There are moments when a ghost appears under a cap in a ball of light, there are moments where we soar over landscapes and actually what technology gives us now – both on film and stage – means that we can do so much more of that.

“The story hasn’t changed - it is the same as it was in 1843, 1935, the 1990s with the Muppet Christmas Carol and the last decade with Jim Carrey – but the technology that can support that story is really cutting edge and I am excited to be employing some of that.”


Read more:


Key to Ciaran’s interpretation of the story is the design.

He said: “I’m working with a designer called Timothy Bird who previously worked on Sunday in the Park with George and a number of other big productions in London. He is incredible. He is like no other designer I have ever worked with.

“And our costumer designer Peter Todd, his costume designs have given me goosebumps every time I have seen his designs or drawings.

“I think the design element will make the most of our space. I don’t want to give anything away but I think it will deliver on everything you want Christmas Carol to be in the most unexpected way you can imagine.

“Visually, I think it will be very different to what we have done in the past at the Rose and very exciting.”

While it is important to look great, there is also focus on the performances and rehearsals are already well underway on Ravens Ait island.

Ciaran said: “Ours has to zip along, it has to be really good story telling.

“It is led by children so that gives us licence elsewhere in what we do to be quite dark or quite exciting in our choices because to see 14-year-olds telling the story on stage gives us from the outside a wonderful sense of charm.”

Heading up the cast as one of literature’s most enduring characters is Martin Ball as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Ciaran, who played the role when he first left drama school, described it as ‘a monumental part’.

“You just never leave the stage and you’re kind of an emotional wreck by the end of it as Scrooge. He is not fundamentally a bad person.

“We watch him behave badly and he is a real misanthrope and a cantankerous, grumpy old man at the start and what we see is a man who somewhere deep down has a heart.

“What he is taken through on his journey to redemption is epic. What’s surprising about the book is he begins to open up very early. He cries very early. I think for those of us that are older in the audience, it is really emotional to watch.

“Certainly for Martin Ball, who is our actor who I am absolutely delighted with, I think it is sort of the equivalent of King Lear but in a Christmas show. We are going to make sure there is a bed in his dressing room where he can lie down.”

A Christmas Carol is at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, from December 1 to January 3. Tickets cost from £9. Go to rosetheatrekingston.org

Wandsworth Times:

 

Ghosts of Christmas past

 

Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in a matter of weeks and published it in December 1843. By Christmas, stage shows had already popped up.

On film, TV and radio alone, there have been in excess of 60 adaptations including:

  • Scrooge, or Marley’s Ghost, the earliest surviving screen adaptation, from 1901
  • Seymour Hicks was Scrooge in 1935 and 1913 versions of A Christmas Carol
  • 1951, Alec Guinness starred as Scrooge on BBC radio
  • Scrooge, also released in 1951, starred Alastair Sim and was described by the New York Times as the best ever adaptation of the Dickens classic
  • A musical version called Scrooge in 1970 starred Albert Finney and Alec Guinness
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) starred Michael Caine and Jim Henson’s famous puppets
  • Patrick Stewart and Richard E Grant starred in 1999’s A Christmas Carol
  • Robert Zemeckis, Disney and Jim Carrey teamed up for a motion-capture 3-D telling of the story in 2009