A Christmas Carol - The Musical

A Debuty Youth Theatre Production

A Christmas Carol was a very ambitious undertaking.  As you might expect from Alan Menken, the music was very complicated, with some difficult entrances.  Dickens’ story presents a huge array of characters, so even with a large ensemble, there was a lot of doubling of roles.  Dominic Sly as Scrooge was one of the few constants - on stage for virtually the whole show, caught up in a whirl of characters and vignettes.

One of the neat tricks of the show is that in the opening street sequence, before the visitation from Marley, Scrooge encounters and disparages three local characters, who then reappear as the three temporal ghosts.  Thus Caitlin Buckley turned from Sandwichboard advertiser into The Ghost of Christmas Present, Georgia South’s Lamplighter became the Ghost of Christmas Past and Anna Robinson, after a tremendously effective performance as the Blind Woman, became the Ghost of Christmas Future.

Hanger Farm Arts Centre is a great venue, but - fitting in and around the shell of a listed barn - it is very quirky.  It’s also expensive to hire, which precludes much rehearsal time in situ.  I saw the show on the first night, and there were one or two problems with scene changes that might have been ironed-out had more time been available to cast and crew for rehearsal in the venue.  One of the quirks - common to all studio theatres, of course - is that there’s no orchestra pit.  What Hanger Farm has is a restricted area where the stage continues beyond the back of the set, where Wendy South and the four-piece band were occasionally exposed by movements of the back curtain.  (I think this was to the surprise of much of the audience, who presumed the music to be recorded.  In an ideal world, the orchestra would be shown-off for the overture before being hidden for the rest of the show, just to give the audience an appreciation for the amount of work they were doing!)

Amongst the huge number of performances, a few highlights: the deceased Marley (Anthony Garlaschi) brought with him a quartet of dancing ghosts (Ema Rafiu, Molly Ellis, Lilly Schofield & Izzy Moth) whose ballet included a game of catch with a severed head.  Lauren Davis gave a brief exhibition of a body-popping floor dance, and Tim Sayed gave a typically exuberant perforamnce as (amongst others) Fezziwig.  Thomas Woodcock as the 18-year-old Scrooge and Karensa Pickering, as his fiancee, Emily, gave poised and moving performances.

The singing was at its best - at its most confident - for the ensembles, with the finale doing exactly what it should do - leaving me feeling that I wanted to hear more.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.