A Christmas Carol

Starting the festive season early, with a trip to see Murton Theatre Group’s performance of “A Christmas Carol” `before pantomime season begins in earliest.  Staged in Murton’s Glebe centre which closed 25 years ago as Murton Welfare Hall a venue known well by many in the community for a major refurbishment which sadly included the loss of all rigging and staging enabling productions to go ahead. MTG have returned in 2023 to hopefully give it a new lease of live and being amateur theatre back to the venue.

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge is of course well known to many in various guises, with Scrooge, the character penned by Charles Dickens being synonymous with the “humbug” at Christmas.  The elderly miser Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits/ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, making him evaluate his life choices and to become a better man.

The titular character of Scrooge was expertly played by Martyn Banks, who can always be relied on to portray whichever character he is tasked with strength, energy and immense talent.  Really great performance Martyn.  He was ably supported by Colin Coulson as Jacob Marley, and Bernadette Trotter, Sean Smith and Carole Young as the Ghosts of Christmas past, present and future respectively.  Our Regional Councillor Peter Oliver narrated as Dickens very clearly and assisted the audience in following the plot.  The Cratchit family were portrayed by Paul Henry as Bob Cratchitt, Ashlee Bentham as Mrs Cratchitt, Aimee Curtis as Belinda, Emily Kerr as Martha and William Hare as Tiny Tim who had the audience in the palm of their hands with his declaration of “God Bless us Every one”.  The Cratchitt family were a heart-warming contrast to Scrooge and William Hare I’m sure will be a star in the making.

We were treated to a beautiful rendition of “Heart of Gold” by Emma Conroy playing Belle, Scrooge’s fiancée which was really quite lovely.

In her element as the strong comedic character was the ever-reliable Ann Malpass as Mrs Fezziwig with director Gordon Richardson also taking to the stage as Mr Fezziwig, with an air of the Thenardier’s and a lovely comic flare from the pair of them.  Supporting roles of Mrs Filch and Mrs Dilber by Anna Maria McCloskey and Enid Dalton respectively brought a fab cockney comedic input and a great contrast with Scrooge, especially during “Just Desserts”.  Also in supporting roles were Brian Hardy as Sam/Old Joe, Richie Lennox-Petre as Fred/Young Scrooge, Zoe Tempest-Petre as Beth and Nathan Johnson as young adult Marley and a combination of supporting characters.

The set was provided by A1 Stage and certainly was very busy, lots to look at from the audience and last minute stage management/support by Joe Coulson and Luke Baker after a sudden expected illness – get well soon Dave Baker who was unable to be present at last minute.  The orchestra was very well controlled under the watchful eye of conductor Peter Forster and never overpowered the cast once, lovely and controlled. Costumes provided by Molly Limpets were lovely and appropriate for the time period.

It was a little shame to see a real visible unfamiliarity of the words from some of the general ensemble whilst on stage during the numbers which was very much noticeable.  I’d really recommend ensuring you’re learning the words to the numbers you’re in as the audience really do notice.

I’ll be looking forward to seeing what Murton Theatre Group do next.

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