A Christmas Carol

I don’t often say that I would happily sit through a show for a second time but I would have been quite happy to see Rustington Players outstanding performance of A Christmas Carol again.  With virtually no scenery apart from some well used boxes, a clever four poster bed and a few props, they brought the whole show to life through an excellent script adapted by Karen Louise Hebden. A good choice of songs well sung, clever costumes, but above all, some memorable acting with excellent lighting and sound by Tom Wortley and Adam Sayers all added together to make this a very unusual but memorable old favourite.

Ebeneezer Scrooge was played superbly by Martin Sworn. His three stages of character from bad tempered, miserly, miserable old man through the terrors of seeing his life as depicted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future to the transformation into a jovial, cheerful, happy character were very cleverly and convincingly portrayed. This was an enormous part to play, keeping him on stage for most of the production.

Ollie Beane as Young Scrooge and Jody Bull as Bob Cratchit gave excellent performances in the acting and singing departments, managing to double up as storytellers and other named characters. Stevie Lambert as Jacob Marley was kept busy with just the one part appearing both dead and alive and young. His make-up and costumes were outstanding. Add to this great cast Tanya Beane, Marlene Tincknell and Robbie Tolhurst as the three Ghosts of Christmas and it is no surprise that this was one really great show.

The youngsters in this society, Tegan, Kez, Matthew, Isabella, Bethany, Toby and Caio all performed really well, the first two doubling their parts with that of Story Tellers. Elodie showed her acting ability really well as Tiny Tim singing a really good solo. It is always great to see the junior members coming on well and benefiting from performing with the adults.

There was a large number of minor principals who all performed their various character roles well, in most cases more than one part, adding to the general professionalism of the whole production.

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