A CHRISTMAS CAROL (SupportBritish)*****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfL2t_VotoU

Available until: Unknown

Support British have produced a number of brilliant online productions during lockdown and A Christmas Carol is another opportunity to see a really entertaining play with some really excellent actors. It is also a good play for feeling Christmassy!

I’m sure part of the aim of this production is to make us and the actors happy and it’s definitely made me happy, but the production is also raising funds for for Acting for Others, a charity which helps actors when they need it (and all actors need help sometimes, especially when there is a worldwide pandemic). Of course no-one has to donate and our families need us at Christmas too, but if you do have some spare money, I’m sure Support British and Acting for Others would appreciate it a lot.

This adaptation is by James Hutchison from Charles Dickens’ novel. It works really well on Zoom (though I don’t think I’ve seen a play that doesn’t yet and I have seen lots of plays on Zoom), it has the characters from the book and it has a happy and fun ending without getting really sentimental. I actually like all kinds of stories including sentimental stories, but not everyone does.

Director Jonathan Kydd has set it up so mostly you only see the person who is speaking, but this works really well as it means we can see everyone clearly and it isn’t confusing and we do get to see the character’s reactions when there is a dramatic reason for showing it. It is a serious story, but a lot of it has quite a light-hearted feel, even before the end.

The production includes music by Steve Redfearn and I really love it. It is so lovely and so varied and it’s just a shame the sections of music are so short because they are really enjoyable. It is always lovely to have incidental music, but this music really is exceptional.

The acting is of a really high standard. There are a lot of actors who perform with Support British regularly and they are very versatile and able to perform all kinds of styles, characters and accents and it always lovely to see the same actors again. I hope they will do more in 2021, hopefully in between lots of paid engagements.

Nicholas Le Provost is excellent as Scrooge. He does the meanness and moodiness really well, but there’s something in his performance that makes Scrooge into a really sympathetic character and you feel sad that he’s missing out on Christmas. I knew the story already, but I still got really caught up in the drama and found myself hoping that Scrooge could be happy.

John Craggs who runs the Support British account gives another really good performance as Jacob Marley. As the ghost, he is really creepy and scary (but not too scary) and it’s very dramatic without crossing the line and going into accidental comedy. It takes a very clever actor to get this just right. As the living Jacob Marley, Mr Craggs is very authoritative and superior with a very big presence and this works really well because you can see how Scrooge ended up going along with his way of thinking about the world.

Most people know A Christmas Carol as the play about the three ghosts (even though there are four ghosts including Jacob Marley) and they are all very well performed in this production. Henrietta Bess is a brisk and efficient ghost of Christmas Past and I really love her costume – it’s so inventive. The Ghost of Christmas Present is often very jolly, but I think Richard O’Callaghan’s creepier and slightly ominous performance works really well. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is usually a silent hooded figure, but here he’s mostly darkness and does say a few words, but then you suddenly see his finger. I’m not sure whose finger it is, but it is really powerful.

Anna Carteret is really lovely as Mrs Dilber and Mrs Cratchit, but there are lots of details in the performance that show they are different people. Sebastian Storey plays Tiny Tim. He is probably a few years older than me (I’ll be sixteen on Christmas Day), but he is very sweet and believable as a little boy. Christopher Beck is a cheerful Bob Cratchit, Jonathan Tafler is a very kind Fred, and Susannah May and Catharine Humphrys as Belle and Fan are very touching as they show the (very different) love they feel for Scrooge.

A really good production of a Christmas classic with a top quality cast.