This production has been a long time coming. The idea of staging A Christmas Carol in St Barnabas Parish Hall has been lurking in my mind for well over a decade.
A church hall in a village (albeit a London village) just seemed the right place for this traditional Christmas tale. But for one reason or another the time was never right. Then, after the success of the Players’ satirical pantomime Jack and the (Brexit) Beanstalk in 2018, the plan for this Christmas production was revived and timetabled for December 2020. And we all know what happened next!
So, tentatively this year, when times started looking more promising for public performances, I set about turning Dickens’ wonderful prose into a play that could realistically be produced on the small stage of the parish hall. A Christmas Carol is a perennial favourite and everyone thinks they know the story. The character of Scrooge is a very familiar one, whether played by Alistair Sim in the classic black and white film, Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol, or even Scrooge McDuck in the Disney version. Nothing epitomises a Victorian Christmas more than this tale of Scrooge, Marley and Tiny Tim - of miserliness, revelation and redemption - that can be told in many different forms; recent examples include the very different treatments of Steven Knight’s dark version for BBC1 and the farce of A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong.
Apparently, IMDb lists over 100 versions of A Christmas Carol – not bad for a story that Dickens reportedly dashed off in just six weeks. The novella lends itself to any number of styles and interpretations, hence its popularity, though some productions overlook Dickens’ very direct references to the deprivation and poverty that permeated Victorian society. By way of research over the last few years, I’ve seen quite a few productions, including The Bridge Theatre’s between-lockdowns three-hander starring Simon Russell Beale, The Old Vic’s live-streamed version with Andrew Lincoln, and ace-storyteller Guy Masterson in a one-man version in a room over a pub off Oxford Street.
The latter experience convinced me that you don’t need a lot of special effects and sophisticated staging to draw the audience in and tell a riveting story. I decided I wanted to stay close to the original book but keep the staging simple so as not to weigh down the narrative. The adapter faces numerous challenges when translating the page to the stage - door-knockers that transform into faces, flying spirits, ghostly appearances and shifts in time and space. The narrative moves from past to present to future, taking in Welsh coal mines, storm-tossed vessels and rural hovels - all problematic with the limited facilities of the parish hall!
The novella is essentially a series of short scenes interspersed with long, wonderfully evocative descriptive passages, creating pictures that would be difficult or impossible to reproduce on stage. Having initially rejected the idea, I realised that I needed to have a narrator, or narrators, to provide the link between the isolated scenes and to maintain the storytelling thread. The result is a cast of nineteen actors portraying thirty characters as well as providing the linking narration. An ambitious project! So, even if you are lured this Christmas by the attractions of Stephen Mangan’s Scrooge at the Old Vic or Mark Gatiss as a very ghostly Marley at Alexandra Palace, there is plenty of room for another telling of this rattling good tale that will raise the spirits in more ways than one. Just don’t expect Scrooge McDuck!
The Dulwich Players present A Christmas Carol
by adapter and director Jane Jones
Performance dates:
Saturday 18th December: 4pm and 7.30pm
Sunday 19th December at 4pm and 7.30pm
Monday 20th December at 7.30pm
Venue: St Barnabas Parish Hall, Dulwich Village SE21 7BT
Tickets: £12 and £8 (under 18’s) via our website.
Suitable for ages 8 and above.
