A Christmas Carol

That quirky creative driving force behind this vibrant, tight-knit, NODA award winning group, Keith Badham has been at it again and this time has come up with his own adaptation of this 1843 Charles Dickens classic. The publicity material alone was intriguing, featuring a snowy gaslit street scene with a very tall, menacing looking hooded figure depicting the ‘Spirit of Christmas yet to come.’ The box office, not unsurprising soon showed as sold out for the night we went. And what Badham had done was to set it completely in its original time period but as a musical using some hauntingly moving modern songs, some very clever choreography and cast Tiny Tim as a muppet style ventriloquist puppet! Yes, I did say puppet. More on that later! It was touch and go whether or not it would go ahead at all, as at one point the heating in the hall was broken and had been off for a month, only restored just in time for the opening night. Not ideal get in conditions for what has been a bitterly cold two weeks leading up to the show. But with brand new, more comfortable chairs in the hall we did all settled in for a thoroughly absorbing evening’s entertainment.

The stage, under the management of Lorna Kalisz and Marilyn Nightingale, in the village hall, Barton-le-Clay, once fitted with its forestage is comparatively huge and ideally suited to set several static scenes across it. Upstage on the back wall was a large traditional clock face, deliberately without hands with an outer circle lit with LEDs producing a ring of colour which cleverly atmospherically changed with the various scenes. Against the rear wall was a raised platform accessible from either side by steps and in front of that was Scrooge’s bed. This allowed the spirits, especially Jacob Marley to impose themselves in dramatic style on the unsuspecting Scrooge’s dreams, which worked very well indeed. To downstage left on the apron was Dicken’s study, depicted by appropriate Victorian furniture; where he was writing the story as we went along. And opposite it downstage Right  was Scrooge’s office again replete with Victorian style desks and a fireplace.  The deep depth of the stage suitably lit gave an appropriate gloomy atmosphere. Very well done.

The atmospheric lighting which played a major role in this production was designed by Keith Bowie and to complete the family involvement the sound was designed by Keith Badham and Rachael Bowie and operated by Adam Bowie. The controlled use of reverb and echo effects on the radio mics in particular were cued to perfection and added a lot of the spookiness essential to the story.

But their technical expertise didn’t stop there. Two brilliant pieces of “out of the box” thinking technology were designed from scratch by Keith Bowie, Firstly, a scene required Scrooges gravestone to be visible whilst he was wrestling with his conscience. This spookily appeared slowly out of the forestage complete with an accompanying puff of mist. I’m told it was a homemade wooden scissor jack driven by a power drill. It then had Scrooge’s name upon it using purple LED lighting. The effect was superb! Secondly the Spirit of Christmas yet to come was portrayed as a cloaked figure of eight foot plus tall. This was achieved with the use of a hoverboard on a frame with wheels and operated offstage by remote control by Rachael Bowie. Now that really is the dictionary definition of thinking out of the box! Brilliant!!

Choreography, which again played a major part in this production was very much a community project with Daisy Cassels, Olivia Horwood, Rachael Bowie, Ashley Parker, Rebecca Louise Smith and Keith Badham all having input and coming up with some innovative and haunting routines, but all done to mostly 80’s music such as Depeche Mode, Japan, Celeste, Madness (cleverly changed to House of Scrooge) amongst others.

The excellent wardrobe of Victorian attire was put together by Derryanne Blunt and Gill George. Makeup is uncredited but still deserves a mention especially for the Spirits for whose eerie appearance it was essential.  Good job whoever was responsible.

Matthew Hall just looked the part of Charles Dickens with a commanding presence as he observed the action of his story from the sidelines. John Murphy gave us an excellent portrayal of Scrooge, with his changing demeanour from uncaring miser to caring employer with some wonderful facial expressions. Perfect!

Jason Wolfe, cast as a slightly older Bob Cratchit than I’ve seen him portrayed before played the downtrodden clerk very well indeed complimented by his family of Belinda (Olivia Horwood), Martha (Daisy Cassels) Peter (Leo Williamson), and Christine Ayres as Mrs Cratchit.

The Director Keith Badham took the part of the Ghost of Jacob Marley, and the costume and make up certainly were ghostly, went to town on the part as he towered over a cowering Scrooge complete with chains and his ghostly face. And the three Spirits, followed up with more misery for Scrooge with the hooded figures of Adele Tebb as Christmas Past, Kirsty Badham as Present and hidden behind the masked eight foot effigy of The spirit of Christmas yet to come was Rececca-Louise Smith balanced on that hoverboard. All very effective and spooky.

We also had a wonderful array of Dickens’ colourful characters from this short story: Fred/Old Joe (Brian Coffey), Belle (Rachael Bowie), Fezziwig (Gill George). Fan (Anthony Parker), Mrs Gamp (Lesley Jorgensen) & Mrs Dilber (Claire Coffey), and Unmarried Sister (Sharon Maltby).

The master stroke however has to be Tiny Tim who, as I said earlier was played by a Muppet style puppet operated by Derryanne Blunt. It really worked too, it was cuddly of course and the facial expressions of pity and dejection were really heart wrenching. And appropriately, he gets the last word too.

So, another excellent production from Barton Players who apart from being extremely resourceful and professional at what they do always give the impression that above all they thoroughly enjoy themselves. Well done indeed to director Keith Badham, his cast and crew. Always a pleasure to visit.

And finally, over to Tiny Tim. “God bless you everyone!”

 

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