Michael Cox finds the National Theatre of Scotland's new Christmas production to be 'a triumph'.
Full disclosure. In America, we do not have the British tradition of pantomime. Christmas shows tend to either be ballets (with the Nutcracker being the most popular), nativity plays or, most popularly, retellings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Most theatres have annual productions that audiences lap up, and any person who works in American theatre has countless Carols under their belt. I myself have worked on several in numerous capacities and have seen dozens of productions, all varying in style and quality. Scrooge and company have also appeared in many film and TV adaptations, most of which are also quite popular, and readings from Dickens’ original story are common to find.
I write all of the above not to flaunt my over-familiarity with Dickens’ classic but more to qualify the following: the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of A Christmas Carol is, without question, the greatest rendition of Dickens’ story I have ever encountered.
It’s rare to find a production of a well-known story that manages to surprise, but director Graham McLaren and company consistently manage to do so, from the audience’s entrance into the theatre space until the curtain call. Not only is the overall production meticulously thought-out and brilliantly executed but is filled with many wonderful flourishes, from the name plate that greets audiences as they enter and Bob Cratchitt’s cramped workspace to the look of each of the ghosts.
This comes to something else I quite admired. Many people forget that Carol is not a happy-go-lucky tale: it’s a ghost story about a sinner literally being scared into salvation. While not quite a horror tale, it does contain frightening moments, a fact this production embraces with the design, staging and ingenious use of puppetry. The Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present truly look ghostly and move about in otherworldly ways, but the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is freaky with a touch of menace while Jacob Marley and his scene with Scrooge is downright eerie.
Part of me wants to go through every moment and clamour on about each bit, but any in-depth analysis would ruin the surprises and charm that are in store. Instead, I will say that it is my sincere wish that NTS will make this production a holiday tradition. It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, which its short run and 90-seat performance space (along with the fact that it’s already sold out) makes rather difficult.
This is not just the best Scottish Christmas show of the season, it is both one of 2011’s most notable events and one of NTS’s greatest productions to date; in short, a triumph.
Run complete.
NTSonline on January 16, 2012, at 4.17pm1326730622
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