It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at The Birmingham Repertory Theatre as the curtain goes up (and the snow comes down) for one of the classic festive tales A Christmas Carol.
It’s a cold Christmas Eve and mean-spirited miser Ebeneezer Scrooge has an unexpected visit from the spirit of his former business partner Jacob Marley. Bound in chains as punishment for a lifetime of greed, the unearthly figure explains it isn’t too late for Scrooge to change his miserly ways in order to escape the same fate, but first he’ll have to face three more eerie encounters.
But this adaptation, while largely staying faithful to the original Charles Dickens novella, takes on more of a haunting feel. Indeed, A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (as it has now become) proved a big hit with the audience.
In most part though this is, in my opinion, down to the impressive and innovatively designed staging, cleverly dialling up the scare factor through ghostly and spine-tingling special effects against a supernatural backdrop.
Visually it is striking and gothic in feel with seamless transitions between scenes.
The cast put in strong performances, Matthew Cottle’s portrayal of Ebeneezer Scrooge among the best I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a few now over the years!) The final scenes were my personal favourite however, as he jigged about the stage akin to an overexcited schoolboy on Christmas morning. Rufus Hound delivers a, perhaps, surprisingly powerful and commanding performance as Jacob Marley.
While the ensemble performances were, on the whole, equally as strong, the use of dual roles resulted in a loss of some believability.
But as the ‘snow’ drifted down in the final scenes depicting the thawing of Scrooge’s icy heart, we couldn’t fail but to get into the festive spirit and I was humming carols all the way home.
There is plenty of time to catch A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story, which runs at the Birmingham Rep from now until January 5th. Tickets can be booked via their website HERE or by calling the box office on: 0121 236 4455.
