By Megan
Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ian-doeschers-a-christmas-carol-catch-up-tickets-133548891329?aff=
Available until: January 1st 0.00 GMT
It’s a sad day today but I’m sure
watching A Christmas Carol made a lot of people feel better, even if it
was only for two and a half hours. It is a really brilliant adaption of A
Christmas Carol with a Shakespearean twist and I really hope it will be
possible for more people to watch it before it disappears offline forever.
It follows the story of A Christmas Carol and it basically has the same characters but most of them have been reimagined as characters from Shakespeare. Ian Doescher has written in Early Modern English with lots of quotes and little nods to Shakespeare’s plays.
The language is very convincingly
Shakespearean and it doesn’t feel like Mr Doescher has used phrases which he
knows from Shakespeare’s plays, he seems to be completely fluent in Early
Modern English. Everything sounds very natural, the characters’ personalities
come through and there is a lot of humour in the text as well as some really
sad moments.
I won’t tell you all the character
changes because you might like to see it for yourself, but Jacob Marley has
been renamed after a playwright and Mr and Mrs Cratchit are named after one of
Shakespeare’s most famous couples. It’s really clever and funny but it’s not
making fun of Shakespeare, it seems to be really full of love for Shakespeare.
I bet if someone has never read Shakespeare before and they read or watched A
Christmas Carol, they would want to know more about all the characters in
this play.
The technical side is brilliant.
Matthew Rhodes was working behind the scenes, Emily Ingram as usual was full of
ideas and she knows all about how to get fake blood out of carpets (I don’t
think I’ll tell my brother Jack about that or he might start inventing all
sorts of ways to get fake blood onto carpets) and the actors show they’re not
just creative about acting, they can also do their own costumes, make-up and
even create their own sets. I haven’t been to anyone’s house for a very long
time but I almost feel like I’ve been in some of my favourite actors’ houses
because I have seen so much of them!
There are lots of effects with the
Zoom screens floating slowly into position which is really good to watch. The
screens are often arranged so Scrooge and the Spirits’ screens are separate
from the other screens. This works really well as it keeps the two scenes
separate and helps make it clear that the other characters can’t see Scrooge or
the Spirits.
The cast are almost all TSMGO alumni
and it’s lovely to see them again. I am never surprised that they are brilliant
but I am always surprised by the ways they are brilliant. Wendy Morgan is
probably the scariest Scrooge I have ever seen (in a good way) and it’s
wonderful the way she shows the changes in him as he goes through the story.
Ahd Tamimi and Tiffany Abercrombie,
Michael Ahomka-Lindsay and Ruth Page, and Ruth Page (again) and Michelle Kelly
are lovely as three Shakespeare couples. Ms Kelly also joins Emilio Vieira to
play one of my favourite non-romantic (officially, anyway) couples. Maryam
Grace is irrepressible as Puck and makes an impressive costume, make-up and
personality change in order to play Pistol. Emilio Vieira is lots of fun as
Falstaff, and Kevin V. Smith gives really astounding performances as King
Hamlet and the mystery playwright. Most of the actors take on multiple roles,
and characters to watch out for include witches, gravediggers, Tiny Tim and
other terrifying characters. And I definitely haven’t forgotten the Spirits. It
would be very difficult to forget them.
Ian Doescher’s A
Christmas Carol is absolutely brilliant
and I even like it better than some of Shakespeare’s plays! I’m not sure if I
believe in reincarnation or not, but if Mr Doescher told me he was the
reincarnation of Shakespeare, I think I might believe him.
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