A spine-tingling adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Mark Gatiss arrives in Birmingham as the spirit of the festive season sprinkles magic over the city.
A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story is now playing at the Birmingham Rep theatre.
Charles Dickens came to Birmingham in December 1853 to give his first pubic reading of A Christmas Carol to a packed audience of 2,000 people at the Town Hall.
The epic reading, which lasted over three hours with only a short 10-minute break, became an historic literary event and the reviews that followed the first public reading heaped praise on both the story and the author.
That timeless and much-loved tale, which has become so popular during the festive season that it’s become firmly associated with the Christmas period, continues to connect with people with its eternal message of compassion, forgiveness and generosity.
Mark Gatiss is known for his passion for ghost stories and he has single-handedly resurrected the legendary A Ghost Story for Christmas strand that was once a part of the television schedules during the festive season during the 1970’s. These adaptations, usually tales by M. R. James, were highly-acclaimed and starred a Who’s Who of British acting talent of the era.
Despite injecting black humour and a touch of irreverence to the stories of M. R. James, the reaction by fans to these adaptations by Gatiss was generally positive.
Gatiss has been a lifelong fan of A Christmas Carol and his adaptation of the evergreen festive classic is similar to his M.R. James adaptations which focus on the psychology of the protagonist. The emphasis in this intelligent, and largely faithful, stage adaptation of Dickens’ novella is on the gothic and the unseen.
Everyone knows the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his miserly ways and how he redeems his soul and his grasping outlook with the help of three spirits who come to teach him about the horrors that await him unless he drastically amends his ways and embraces love, mercy and a shared humanity.
Gatiss very wisely retains the central story and refrains from tinkering too much with the ideals and core concepts. He injects the show with a dark edge that reveals the nightmares that lurk in the recess of the human mind.
This adaptation of the classic Victorian ghost story is laced with unseen menace yet it has a delicate and beautiful balance that also celebrates light and life in a world where avarice and a narrow world view has corrupted a section of society that fails to lift a finger to make positive change for fellow human beings who are living in extreme poverty. In a world overflowing with wealth and an abundance of food there should be no hunger or deprivation.
Mark Gatiss makes stark comparison to the appalling state of our times, where child poverty and homelessness are on the rise, with a story written over 180-years ago that called for much-needed social change.
This stage production is both a heartfelt love letter to the original novella and a stunning night at the theatre that makes an old story relevant, topical and urgent to a modern audience.
To illustrate the transition of Scrooge’s soul from dark to light, the entire show becomes a transformative journey from inky shadows, where a man is drowning in an abyss of his own making, to a place where the candles sparkle and burn as brightly as Scrooge’s newly discovered zest for life.
Adam Penford directs the show with a sure and deft hand, and the pacing is so brisk and exciting that the 2-hour runtime zips by fast without losing any of the emotional resonance that makes the story so powerful.
The set designs by Paul Wills have an expressionistic air that allows the audience to home in on the claustrophobic world inhabited by the greedy Scrooge who cares little for comfort or joy. Cabinets are stacked ceiling high and resemble wobbly Towers of Babel scattered around Scrooge’s cramped and gloomy office.
The chain worn by the ghost of Jacob Marley (Rufus Hound) has to be seen to be believed. It looks bigger and heavier than the chain on the Titanic’s anchor. The metaphor of the chain, and what it really represents, is driven home really powerfully in this production.
The puppet work by Matthew Forbes is the kind of witchcraft that makes you hold your breath when you see it. To reveal too much about Forbes’ atmospheric and eerier creations is to spoil the fun for those who have yet to see the show. Suffice to say the hairs on the back of your neck will rise and your skin will prickle.
Ella Wahlström’s sound design is terrifying, while Nina Dunn’s creepy back projections conjure up such nightmares as a phantom horse and carriage gliding through the auditorium, a fog enshrouded graveyard, and a dilapidated mansion which looks like it will devour anyone who dares to enter.
The cast members are wonderful and there is natural warmth and verbal wit as characters mingle and interact, bringing depth and realism to each role.
Matthew Cottle (Scrooge) makes the audience literally taste the gruel he’s eating. He has an uncanny way of us reaching into the mind of the audience and letting them join in as he eats his lumpy, cold and miserable supper.
Scrooge’s crude and shabby meal is deliciously contrasted when the flamboyant Mark Theodore (Ghost of Christmas Present) arrives on the scene with a golden goblet of wine and a table heaving with a feast fit for a king. The food seems to glow with a golden sheen, there’s a shimmer of heat wafting off the various dishes, and the succulent chicken drumsticks drip with aromatic spices.
Grace Hogg-Robinson (Ghost of Christmas Past) is otherworldly and ethereal in a diaphanous gown, and her elegant and balletic movements on the four-poster bed have a beguiling effect both on Scrooge and the audience.
The story at the heart of this stage show remains as fresh and as poignant as the day when the original novella was first published almost two centuries ago. The plight of the poor and impoverished is the hymn that forms the foundation of both the book and this emotionally gripping stage adaptation.
A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story is a landmark production that haunts the mind and touches the heart.
Verdict: ★★★★★
A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story is now playing at the Birmingham Rep theatre until Sunday 5 January 2025
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